


Rainbow Latte Blast

by AphantaRay



Category: Star vs. The Forces Of Evil
Genre: Also Coming Soon, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, F/M, I Capitalized Those Tags You Have To Believe Me AO3 Is Ruining My Reputation, I Swear It's Coming Soon, I Was Told I Need More Tags, Love Polygon, Slow Burn, no romance just yet, that's my bad
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-15
Packaged: 2020-10-10 08:22:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 57,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20524922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AphantaRay/pseuds/AphantaRay
Summary: Star is a newly hired magical barista from another dimension. Will she be too much for deputy shift-supervisor Marco to handle?





	1. Star Comes to Buck's Coffee

When Marco arrived for work at Buck’s Café, he was surprised to see a new girl in the stock-slash-break room. She immediately ran up to him with a huge grin on her face, “Hey!—” she stared intently at his nametag for a moment, “—Marco! I’m Star! I’m new. You’re training me today. Are you pumped? I’m pumped.”

Marco was not told he would be training anyone today, never mind that he would be training someone with enough energy coming out of her to fuel a few dozen espresso shots. In fact, he had very much been looking forward to a peaceful Sunday afternoon shift. He was hoping to see his favorite regular today. They’d had this cute thing going on for a while where she would come in on her skateboard around 4 PM with a real charming smile on her face to order a vanilla latte, and he would ask what size, and she would say, “The big one,” and he would nod – but in like… a flirty way? You know what, it’s hard to explain, you just have to be there.

But all that was probably out the window now. The new girl was already becoming a handful and their shift hadn’t even started yet. Star was absolutely bouncing with joy while she explored the stock room. She kept moving things out of their proper place to ask Marco what they were, then she just dropped them on the nearest flat surface whenever something else caught her eye. He had to follow her around picking up after her and putting things back on the shelves in an orderly fashion.

“Star. Please. I have to count these later, don’t just leave them wherever.”

“What? Shouldn’t they be easier to count if they’re on the table?”

“Star.”

Marco was the shift supervisor on Sunday afternoons. It was a title he worked hard to get, though it had only taken him a few months to prove himself a dependable employee to the Boss. It was also sort of an empty title on Sunday afternoons, since he was normally the only person working. Really all it meant was that he got to do the cash counts and inventory instead of a manager who would have been paid more to do the same thing. Which, when he thought about it, was kind of exploitative? But the prestige of it was impossible to resist. It was a proud moment every Sunday when he got to affix the temporary _Supervisor_ label to his name tag.

He called Star to come up to the front so he could give her a tour of the equipment, and she, again, just dropped whatever she was holding on the table. Maybe he would make _her_ do the counts today. But if she messed up, it would look bad on him, and he’d probably have to redo them again anyways to be sure… Training this girl was going to be a whole thing, wasn’t it?

Marco counted the float and logged in to the till before he gave the morning shift girl a high five on her way out. She wished him good luck with the new girl.

“Thanks. I get the feeling I’ll need it.”

“You’re not kidding. She got hired on the spot this morning. No experience. No resumé. Pretty weird. Have fun dude.”

“You want anything for the road?”

“Yeah sure, give me the usual.”

“A day-old fritter?”

“You know it. Love the free stuff.”

Marco turned to pack up one of the free pastries from the Secret Barista Snack Shelf only to find Star had already cleaned it out. Marco could barely make out the words, “These are amazing,” through the fritters and muffins she had just stuffed in her mouth.

He put his head in his hands and apologized to Janna when she came around the front of the counter after changing into her street clothes. “Let me buy you something, what do you want?”

Janna shook her head that it wasn’t necessary. “It’s no biggie dude, I’ve got plenty of snacks at home.” She gave a little wave on her way out the door, “Have fun, you two.”

Mouth still full, Star waved and shouted a muffled thanks. After finishing off her stolen lunch, she said to Marco, “She seems nice!”

Marco nodded his head, already feeling exhausted. “Okay Star, what do you know about coffee?”

“Uh mainly that it is _delicious_. I make it at home all the time.”

Of course you do, Marco thought to himself, where else could all this energy come from?

“Have you ever used an espresso machine before?”

“Nope!”

“Just drip coffee?”

“Oh, no, we make espresso on the stove where I’m from.”

“Where are you from?”

Star waved her hands in an arc and wiggled her fingers whimsically when she replied in a spooky singsong voice, “Another dimension.”

Yes. Of course. This is what Marco needed today.

“Okay. I’m going to ignore that for now. So you probably haven’t made a latte or a cappuccino or anything like that before?”

“I have!”

“On a stovetop.”

“Yeah!”

“How… do you steam the milk?” As much as Marco enjoyed working here, he wasn’t a coffee aficionado. He _thought_ he’d seen stovetop steamers before, but he had no idea how they worked, and the whole concept of stovetop espresso was kind of foreign to him. Maybe Star could show him one day. Despite her erratic behavior, she might secretly turn out to be competent.

But no, instead Marco got more erratic behavior. Star proudly produced a colorful, ancient-looking steam wand made of gold from her pocket. It had a star-shaped decal and some ornate silver filigree winding up the pipe. It looked like it had been forcibly torn from some other device. “Da-dun! Magic steam wand!”

Marco blinked in awe, looking back and forth between her radiant smile and the strange implement in her hand. Was… was Star… okay? Like, in the head? Should he call the Boss? No, no this is fine, Buck’s is an equal opportunity employer.

“Okay. You know what, I think I’m just going to stop asking questions here and just show you how it works.”

Star put the wand away and nodded, then watched very intently. She clearly had an interest in this. If she could just calm down for a bit, he might be able to show her the ropes and then have some time to focus on his supervisor-type work before his flirty regular came in. This might even be an _easier_ shift than usual – _if_ Star could chill out.

He ran through the operations of the machine. Tamping the grounds just so. Adjusting the timing, temperature, and pressure. Preheating the cup. Steaming the milk. He let her pour out a cappuccino and was stunned by the craftsmanship of the pattern she drew. It was whimsically floral. He felt bad having to correct her. Buck’s had a brand to maintain, after all, and a traditional pour was part of that.

“Well that just looks boring,” she complained when she saw Marco’s version.

“It’s what the Boss wants.”

“Well the _Boss_ is boring, then.”

Star was not wrong. But the Boss was also very terrifying and signed their paychecks.

Before letting her loose to try the machine on her own, he showed her how to tap the grounds out of the porta filter after they were done. But when she tried it, only half the puck came out.

“Use more force. Don’t worry about breaking that thing, it’s real solid metal.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, give ‘er.”

Star raised up her arm for a full-force downswing and Marco was immediately filled with a sense of regret.

A minute later, he returned from the back with the shop’s toolkit and started hammering the steel counter back into shape while Star sulked in the corner.

“You _said_ it was fine.”

“I _clearly_ underestimated your enthusiasm. My fault.”

“It _is_ your fault!”

“I just said that!”

“Well it’s true!”

“I know! That’s why I _said_ it!”

A customer was standing at the counter and had been for quite some time. She timidly waved and asked for help but was ignored by the two feuding baristas – who refused to make eye contact with each other. Eventually her pleas for help reached Marco, who took a break from carefully reforming the right angles of the counter to take her order. He aggressively showed Star how to put an order into the computer and take a customer’s money.

“And then you _smile_ and maybe they’ll give you a _tip_ for being _cute_ and _enthusiastic_,” he put a cutting emphasis on his words, then gave a very forced smile at the customer, “Name for the order, please.”

‘Anne’ gave a very generous 5% tip for Marco’s uncharacteristically lackluster customer service.

“Now we make the order. Obviously.” He turned to Anne and passive-aggressively thanked her for her patience, “Our new barista is still learning how to not destroy the bar.”

Star huffed at Marco’s attitude. She elbowed him and shoved him out of the way to take over the machine. And to Marco’s surprise, it seemed that she had paid attention and picked up everything from his lessons earlier, because she expertly handled the machine and managed to make a perfect latte – except that she used her own design for the pour again, and, while maintaining aggressive eye contact with Marco, she very deliberately slammed the porta filter into the counter, making another dent. “Oops. Still getting the hang of it,” she apologized sarcastically. Then she turned to the customer with a pleasant and sincere smile, “Sorry ‘bout the wait. Here’s your latte, Anne. Have a great day!”

“Oh, it’s very pretty.”

Star glared at Marco, “_Thank_ you.”

“Are you an artist?”

“I am a magical barista from another dimension, Anne. Coffee art is in my soul.”

Anne turned to Marco and smiled, “I like this one.”

Marco muttered under his breath, “At least _someone_ does.”

Star stomped off to the break room and gave Marco another elbow. “Oops. Sorry, _real_ crowded back here.”

A few customers came in and Marco tried his best to cool down, but he didn’t manage to get a tip over 10% for the next twenty minutes, and his drinks were coming out terribly. Maybe he shouldn’t have been so grumpy at Star. It was her first day. He was supposed to be looking out for her. And it really was his fault for not being more clear. Probably not a great idea to encourage someone to be so reckless with the equipment.

When service died down a bit, he went to go talk to her. She was still sulking a bit and fiddling with her phone.

He tried to soften his voice when he spoke, “Hey.”

But Star was clearly still feeling riled up, “What.”

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t being fair. I know you’re new.”

“Whatever, _Marco_, just finish training me and I’ll be out of your hair. Your boring Boss is putting me on the morning shift anyways, so you’ll never have to deal with me again.”

Marco sighed, then asked her to please come back up to the front. He still had a few more things to show her before she could be unleashed on the world. The menu was mercifully humble. The Boss didn’t cater to the whimsy of the masses. There weren’t even smoothies or fancy sweet drinks. Just coffee, tea, a carefully curated selection of three artisanal sandwiches, a daily soup, and a few in-house baked goods. He showed her the Boss’s arcane system of organizing the varieties of tea, how to bake the cookies and pastries from the stuff that was prepped by the morning staff, and how to avoid incurring the wrath of the Boss by being sure to follow a strict sequence of movements when assembling the sandwiches. He also offered a few tips for keeping the Boss happy in general.

“The pour. She won’t be happy if you keep that up. Keep some change in your pocket to fix up your cash count if your till looks short. Never make food or drinks for yourself.”

“What if I’m working alone?”

“Yeah. I mean, it’s a risk you gotta take sometimes. Just remember that at any moment, she may be watching you, hiding in the shadows.”

Start scoffed, “Come on, for real?”

Marco nodded grimly, and looked over his shoulder nervously. “She may even be here right now, in which case I may have just lost my job by telling you all this.”

“Well thank you. You will be remembered. As a jerk who is bad at training new staff.”

“Gee thanks.”

Star thought about it for a second, then took it back. “You did pretty good, actually, after you stopped freaking out about a stupid little dent in the counter. Look, I’ll show you something special if you promise not to tell anyone.”

Marco had a bad feeling about that offer, but he agreed. Star disappeared in the back and returned with a tall golden… kettle? It looked like it was missing a piece, and sure enough, it was missing the golden wand Star showed him earlier. She pulled the wand out of her pocket and reattached it, and then the broken seam closed up like… well, like magic, really.

“You have a stovetop I can use?”

“Yeah, there’s a hot plate over there for the soup. You can turn it up though. What’s that thing for?”

Star unsealed the device and filled it with water, then reassembled it. It had a lot more parts than Marco imagined at first glance. She explained that this was the steamer she used at home. “I wasn’t supposed to take it. My mom would freak out if she found out.” She winked, “You won’t tell, though, right?”

“Right.”

She got a menacing look on her face, “Or else.”

Marco raised his hand in the air to swear, “Promise.”

Star put the steamer on the hot plate and adjusted the handle and knobs until it was just right, then went to work on a cup of milk. She whispered a few words that Marco couldn’t hear while she directed the steam into the cup, and the milk changed as it got frothier and frothier until it was basically just a thick stew of superfine foam that… glowed? Then Star went over to the counter and poured the concoction over the dents she’d made earlier.

To Marco’s amazement, the counter’s blemishes popped right out of the metal. It looked brand new. Even the years of scratches faded away when Star wiped the foam away.

“Ta da~,” Star sung, and Marco realized that he might have severely underestimated her potential.


	2. Coffee Break

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the encouragement, [xSugaritos](https://archiveofourown.org/users/xSugaritos/profile). The saga continues.

“Hey dude,” Janna greeted Marco when he came in the café for the following week’s Sunday morning shift. She had her usual chill tone, but something about the sly smile on her face told Marco something was up.

He scoped out the empty shop and walked cautiously up to the counter, but everything looked pretty normal. “What did you do? Snakes in my apron again?”

“Nah, they won’t sell me snakes anymore. Pet store doesn’t believe in my agenda for serpentine liberation.”

“Yeah, I don’t think anyone in Echo Creek appreciated the sudden explosion of exotic snakes crawling around, dude.”

“They don’t _crawl_, Diaz, they _slither_. With style.”

“What’s the prank, then? You’ve got that look.”

Janna put on a look of mock indignation, “Come on, dude, if I was gonna do something to you, you wouldn’t know about it until it was _far_ too late. I’m just excited for you. There’s just a fun surprise waiting in the back.”

“What kind of ‘fun’?”

“The _8 hours’ of unrelenting supervisory chaos_ kind of fun.”

The color drained from Marco’s face, “No. No nonono… I thought she was…” He ran to the stock-slash-break room and found the source of Janna’s grin – the weird blonde girl was back.

She wasn’t supposed to be here today! He was free! Her training was basically done, so she was supposed to be stuck on the miserable morning shift from Tuesday to Saturday. _Why_ was she back?

She hadn’t noticed him coming into the break room – which was probably for the best since he was having a little freak out moment in the doorway. When he finally pulled himself together, Marco noticed that she was busy working on something at the break table. She was trying to wrangle a very, very large sheet of unfolded, sun-stained paper. Marco thought it kind of looked like the instructions you get with a some-assembly-required piece of furniture, but it was way too big for that. Maybe a map?

He straightened himself out, put on his best customer service face, and tried to feign enthusiasm, “Heyyy—” he suddenly realized he had no idea what her name was. It was a weird one, though. Rainbow or Sunshine or something? He quickly scanned the schedule on the wall and spotted her name, decorated with hearts, “—Star. You’re back.”

Without looking up from her unwieldy document, Star replied in an achingly pleasant tone, “Yeah! The Boss wasn’t happy with my uh… ‘lack of progress’. So here I am, ready for another round of training! Let’s try to get along today, okay?”

“Are you going to break more stuff today?” Marco let slip just a bit more sarcasm than he intended with that remark.

“Come on, I’m sorry about that. Look, I brought you something special as an apology for being so much trouble last week,” she said, blindly pointing to a steaming take-out cup on the chair next to her.

Marco picked it up with suspicion, “What is it?”

“Just try it, you’ll love it.”

He smelled the cup and found it strangely pleasant. Nostalgic. Cinnamon? Apples? Was it cider? He took a sip and was amazed to find that it tasted precisely like the best apple pie he’d ever eaten, complete with the taste and sensation of a nice cold scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. But when he opened the lid, it just looked like a plain cup of coffee.

“How… how did you… What is this?”

Star casually replied that it was, “Applegato Pie. That’s an easy one once you get the hang of it. You like?”

“Yeah. I do.” He took another sip, “Just. Wow. You’ll have to show me how to make one of these.”

Star laughed, “Yeah good luck. Took me three months to get that one right.”

Marco savored the peace offering, marveling at the taste with every sip. He guessed this could make up for all the chaos last week. Almost.

While he nursed the cup, he peered over Star’s shoulder to try to figure out what she was working on. The cumbersome document she was poring over was creased into at least a few dozen pocket-sized rectangles, each containing very tiny, numbered instructions, along with extremely detailed and labelled black-and-white diagrams – one of which, Marco noted, was an exploded view of every piece of that weird coffee thing Star used to mend the counter the last time he saw her. He wanted to get a closer look at the diagrams, but he wasn’t sure how to ask after he was so unpleasant with her just a second ago.

He tried to sound as casual as possible, “Whatcha lookin’ at?”

“Recipes, recipes, and more recipes. Trying to find this real good espresso drink my mom used to do when I was a kid.”

“Your mom made you coffee as a _kid_?”

“A-doy, Marco, how else was I supposed to grow up big and strong? Vegetables?”

Marco didn’t know if he could even argue with that. Who knows how things worked wherever Star was from.

He shrugged it off and continued on with his inquiry, “And this thing is a recipe… booklet? How can you find anything without an index?”

“Oh it’s almost impossible, really. Just gotta kind of flip around and hope for the best. It usually works out. You want to see?” Star showed off the immense document to Marco, “This is my family’s most precious treasure – the _Multilingual Instruction Pamphlet of Spells_.”

Marco nodded dumbly. That was, after all, a very normal thing for a thing to be. He closed his eyes and quietly said goodbye to his peaceful Sunday afternoon. Amazing apple pie coffee or not, he couldn’t handle more of this girl. He’d have to work extra hard to get Star trained up for the morning shift before the end of the day.

Star pointed to one of the rectangles in the document and continued, “I think I found the instructions for the thing I want, but they’re not in English so I can’t even read them. Sucks.”

“Why would an instruction booklet from your family be written in another language?”

“It’s written in _every_ language. Here, see?” Star unfolded the sheet a few more times until it was nearly taking up the entire break room to show Marco the incalculable scope of the document. And even at that size, it still had many, many more layers yet to be unfolded. Even just the sections he could see were randomly marbled with scripts and symbols from at least a dozen foreign tongues that were surely not of this world – though he spotted one panel in a language he was very familiar with.

Star continued, “See? So, _so_ many languages. It’s brutal to work with, but I guess there’re industry regulations for these things.”

Marco wondered what extradimensional regulatory body oversaw the industry of producing family treasures with instructions for magical coffee recipes, but then he had a moment where his mind just kind of conked out from the absurdity of that train of thought and he had to move on. He helped Star fold the Pamphlet back up again and asked a more digestible question, “So your mom’s drink… it’s not in English for… some reason?”

“It is! But that one’s got a coffee stain on it. The ink bled and I can’t read it. I’ve been trying to find it in another language that I can understand but uh… I’m not exactly a word genius, so… rough seas.”

“Can’t you just do the thing?” Marco wiggled his fingers like he was casting a spell, “Whip up a magic stain-erasing cappuccino or something?”

Star looked at him like he was an absolute idiot for suggesting it, “You want me to fix a coffee stain with more coffee.”

“Okay. You’re saying that like I’m crazy, but I saw you fix a steel counter with milk foam last week.”

Star shook her head, “Oh, sweet, naïve Marco. The Pamphlet can’t be magicked at.”

“Oh, right, yes. I should’ve known that. Obviously.”

They didn’t have any more time to mess around on the ins and outs of magic coffee. The clock on the wall was about to turn over to the next hour, so he got Star to put her business away and hurried her up to the counter to relieve a very smug and very relaxed looking Janna from her duties. How was it Janna always managed to have basically no customers all day? Why were they getting the same wage?

“Good surprise, huh?” Janna jabbed at Marco’s shoulder.

“Yes. Look at my face. Can’t you tell I’m ecstatic about it?” He was obviously not.

Star had a quizzical look, “What was the surprise?”

Marco tried to think of something harmless, “Janna got me… new… mop… heads. New mop heads. Super absorbent.”

Star looked skeptical, “That’s how you guys have fun around here, huh? Cleaning supplies?”

Janna made like she was telling Star a secret, “He’s pretty delicate. Gotta keep the excitement to a minimum.”

“I am _not_ delicate.”

Janna scoffed, “Whatever, Diaz. You almost fainted the last time we ran out of cream.”

Marco shook his head mournfully, “Dark times.”

“There’s a Snack Shack full of supplies across the street, dude. It was not dark times. Anyways, you kids have fun, I’m out.” Janna gave the two of them a salute, launched her apron through the swinging door to the break room, and vaulted over the counter.

Star watched Janna exit, then turned to Marco, “She’s pretty cool, huh?”

“She’s pretty something. Look at this mess. None of the tables have been cleaned. She didn’t count her cash. The island isn’t stocked. That monster plays by her own rules, Star, and we are left in her wake to suffer the dire consequences of her slothful ways.”

“Okay no need to get dramatic, it’s just a few dirty tables. If it bugs you so much,” Star pulled out her Pamphlet, “I could whip up a little something to make the tables clean themselves. Pretty sure there’s a recipe in here for that.”

“No! No. No weird recipes. Just grab a cloth and help me get this place back in order, okay?”

Star’s shoulders slumped a bit, but she went along with his plan and half an hour later, the place was looking great.

Maybe the reason Janna never had any customers was because she kept the place so inhospitable for patrons. Clever tactic, but Marco was on the hook for sales on Sundays, and he always had to work extra hard to make up for Janna’s slacking off. But whatever! That was fine! Why should everyone have to pull their weight? He loved the challenge. He loved it. He really, just, totally loved it.

Sadly, even though they put all the effort into making the café look presentable, practically no customers were coming in, and the two of them ended up having a whole lot of nothing to do during the long lulls between orders.

Marco suggested they keep themselves busy the usual way – by making small messes and then cleaning them up. To demonstrate, Marco ‘accidentally’ spilled some crumbs out of the toaster and onto the floor.

“The Boss hates to see us standing around doing nothing, so uh. I dunno, find something to clean.”

“Uh, we _just_ cleaned. We can’t just relax? Read a comic book or something?”

“No, absolutely _no_ reading on the job. You don’t even want to know what happened to the last person the Boss caught doing that.”

Star sighed, but she tried to be a good sport about Marco’s Sisyphean cleaning strategy. She filled up a glass with water and then tipped it over. She stood in absolute still silence while she watched the water drip off the counter and onto the floor, then she grabbed a rag and started sopping up the mess. The look on her face was more than bored. There was a deep sadness there. While she was wringing the water out of the rag into the sink, that sadness turned into frustration, and a deep furrow form on her brow. She started up a stern lecture with Marco.

“Marco.”

“Star.”

“I didn’t take this job because I wanted to push a boulder up a hill over and over. If I’m going to be stuck pointlessly cleaning stuff all day between customers, I’m going to go crazy.”

Marco couldn’t really argue with that. It was a valid complaint. That was probably the main reason anyone quit this job. Sadly, there wasn’t much else to do if they wanted to keep the Boss happy. To be honest, when Marco applied for this job, he didn’t know how much busywork was involved in this profession either, and busywork definitely wasn’t the reason _anyone_ wanted to work there. Even he had to admit he didn’t like it. If not for the joy of busywork, though, why did he stick around? It wasn’t like he was desperate for cash. He lived at home and scholarships were covering his tuition, and service wages weren’t exactly letting him live like a rock star. Maybe the prestige of it? Buck’s _was_ a nice coffee shop. Award winning. Well, a few years ago it won _an_ award. Was it convenience? It was near the school, and he’d always liked the coffee there. He got a hard-earned discount now. And at least while he kept working here, he’d get to see his coffee crush Jackie every week. Was any of that really a good reason to stay, though?

Marco got out of his head and asked Star, “Why _did_ you take this job?”

Star replied with absolute confidence in herself, “Three reasons.” She held up her hand with her fingers pointed out and counted them off, “One: My mom made me. She was all, ‘Star Butterfly, get yourself out of this house and take some responsibility blah blah blah,’ and I was like, ‘No that sucks,’ and then she dragged me here last week and put me to work.”

Marco nodded. That didn’t sound too surprising, though he wondered how Star’s mom had managed to get her a job so easily. When he had applied, he was put through rigorous – and unpaid – mental and physical testing over the course of three weeks. But he persevered for the sake of… that sweet, sweet 25% discount? Or maybe it was just ego and obstinance.

Also… did Star just say her last name was ‘Butterfly’? That’s too adorable to be real. But he probably shouldn’t be thinking about how adorable his coworkers might be. Very unprofessional.

“Two:” Star pulled out and held up the Pamphlet like she was taking an oath, “It is my _sworn duty_ as the future inheritor of the Butterfly Café to learn every one of these coffee preparation techniques.”

Family business, huh? That must be annoying. “Are they hard?” Marco figured there could only be so many kinds of coffee in the world. Hers didn’t seem like it should be as herculean a task as she was implying.

As if reading his mind, Star replied, “There are thousands of them in there and _yes_ they are very hard – but it’s really important that I do this.”

Marco nodded, “Big pressure from your folks, huh? That must be a lot to deal with.”

“No no no. It’s not for them. I couldn’t care less about the family café or whatever. I’m doing this for _me_. You see it, don’t you? How people smile when they get their coffee just right. I love that feeling. And I love learning new recipes and stuff. It’s scary when it goes wrong sometimes, but it’s fun anyways.”

Marco couldn’t imagine how making coffee could be scary, but Star said it with such conviction that he knew it had to be true – and it suddenly dawned on him that whenever she was in the building, he was probably going to be subject to whatever magical insanity she planned to unleash from that Pamphlet of hers. He’d seen enough cartoons in his life to know how this magical princess stuff went down. He’d have to put a stop to all this if he had any hope of peace – and failing that, he’d have to get rid of her. Wait, no, that sounded dark. Maybe not get _rid_ of her, but maybe if she just… worked another shift. Like she was supposed to. If only he could convince the Boss that Star was ready for solo mornings.

“Three:” Star continued, “I uh… have to pay rent and stuff. Mom only gave me three months of expenses when she dropped me off.”

“Ah. The truth is out.”

“No no, I could work anywhere to pay the rent, but… I dunno, I like it here. There’s a nice ambiance. The customers are nice. Even the Boss is okay. I think you’re making her out to be more of a villain than she is. And if I can get away with it – and I think I can if you’ll just be a little more flexible about it – I might even be able to master everything in this Pamphlet after working here for a few years.”

_Years_!? No! Absolutely not. Marco could not handle _years_ of Star messing up the shop.

He urgently tried to dissuade Star, “I don’t think the Boss will let you mess with your magic coffee stuff here – especially if you’re planning to do weird… did you call them spells?”

“The Pamphlet kind of oversells it. They’re just recipes if we’re being honest. _Potions_ at best.”

“Well whatever, you can’t bring your weird ‘magic’ coffee thing in here. There’s food safety rules about stuff like that.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I won’t need that thing. The Magic Steam Wand works with basically anything that boils water.” Star looked over her shoulder for the Boss (whose presence was always to be expected, but never to be detected), then she pulled out the golden Steam Wand from her pocket and pointed it at the espresso machine. She smiled, an excited look on her face, “I’m gonna install this thing on the machine today.”

“No. No nonono, do _not_ do that. The Boss will put me through the grinder if you hurt the espresso machine. It’s imported from Italy – at _great expense_, she reminds me, every time she’s in. I’ve seen her giving it little kisses when she thinks no one’s looking.”

“Okay. Well, that’s weird, and I don’t know what Italy is, but I can’t work on these recipes if I can’t use my Wand. Plus, this shop’s steam wand is super boring. ‘Oh let’s steam milk and do literally nothing fun.’ Please.” Star peered out at the café, “Look, no customers, no Boss. I’ll be quick. Where’s that tool kit you had last week?”

Marco refused to tell her.

“Come on!”

He wouldn’t budge on it.

“Oh, what_ever_, Marco! I’ll find it myself.” She went to the back room and started digging around noisily.

Marco stood in the doorway and continued trying to dissuade her, but it didn’t help, and it wasn’t long before she found the tools. Marco had to physically stand between her and the machine to block her, and he was at the point of pleading with her, “Nope. No. No! Star! I will literally die. The Boss will turn me into dust and then who’s going to train you, huh?”

“Come on, I won’t break it. How hard can it be to swap out one piece?”

“Hard! I bet it’s super hard!” He gestured at the machine dramatically with both hands, “This – thing – is worth tens of thousands of dollars, Star. It costs hundreds of dollars to repair a _knob_. Please. Please I’m begging you.”

Star was having trouble getting past him, but she managed to get the upper hand when a customer came in. She stood her ground with her arms crossed and refused to serve the guy. Marco lost the game of chicken. He threw his arms up in the air, then quickly put on a very charming smile and a pleasant façade for the customer – who was remarkably fussy for a guy just buying a bottle of water. By the time he could turn his attention back to Star, the espresso machine was already in a very large number of very small and very complicated-looking pieces. Marco went absolutely pale.

“Star what have you done… You’ve killed us. You’ve killed us both.”

Star waved her hand, “It’s _fine_, don’t worry, I’m almost done.”

With the machine fully dismantled, Star was able to swap out the traditional stainless steel wand with the special one from her pocket. With a flurry of sparkles and a white glow, the rough, torn edge of the gold tubing merged seamlessly with the machine’s steel fittings. Star was about to throw the original steam wand away, but Marco quickly swiped it from her hand before she could do so.

He let out a deep breath to calm himself down. He was beginning to realize how meaningless his title as supervisor meant to this girl. He knew he would never get anything more than a compromise out of Star, but he had to negotiate _some_ kind of arrangement. If he didn’t, he was going to be in an unimaginable amount of trouble. “Listen. If you’re… I can’t believe I’m even saying this… If you’re going to use your ‘Magic Wand’ while you’re here, you have to put the boring one _back_ when you’re done, okay? Can you do that? For me?”

To Marco’s amazement, by the time he was done pleading with her, Star had already mostly reassembled the machine. While she was tightening the final screws, she gave Marco’s terms some thought. And once the thing was all in order, she proudly slapped the case with her hand and turned to face Marco with a smug look on her face. She pointed at him with the screwdriver while she spoke. “Fine. If you’re going to be such a butt about it, I’ll put the boring wand back when I’m done my shift, okay?”

“Can you do it without destroying the machine?”

“Oh sure. Actually, now that I’ve got a good look at it, I didn’t even need to take it apart. It’s just this little rotating cuff at the base here, see?”

Marco let out a sigh of relief, “Okay. Thank you.”

He took a few minutes to inspect the machine while Star cleaned up the tools. Marco ran his hands along the seams of the chassis and found that a few of the pieces were not lined up properly, and the color drained from his face again when he saw three screws just sitting on the counter.

“Star. What are these?”

“Uh. Extras?”

“Extras.”

“Probably?”

“It’s all crooked!”

Star gave the machine a close look, then backed up and shrugged, “Close enough?”

Marco felt his chest tightening up with stress. It was absolutely _not_ ‘close enough’, but there was no time to fix it now; customers were lining up. He had to get back to actually providing the service they were being paid to provide.

Of course the first order was a latte. And the second was a cappuccino. And the third was an americano. No one wanted drip coffee? Tea? Just a snack?

When the machine started up for the first espresso shot, it rumbled like thunder, and the shot dripped out at a snail’s pace. Marco wanted to taste it before serving it, and it was… good enough, he guessed. A little weak. But more importantly, if the thing was stuck putting out distillate so slowly, then this was definitely not going to be a fun service.

While trying to attend to the growing line of impatient customers, Marco was getting frazzled. When one of the waiting customers violently shoved another one out of the way to scold Marco for making him wait for so long, that was when Marco started to lose it. He didn’t make this mess, why should he be the one to clean it up?

“Sorry _sir_,” he said, a little too curt, “seems our machine isn’t behaving right now. But here,” Marco put Star in front of the till, “I’ll let you talk to the expert, she should be able to help.”

And with that, Marco took off his apron, gathered up the toolkit and the loose screws, and stormed off the line into the break room. He ignored Star pleading for him to wait. If Star was going to be so pushy and irresponsible, then _she_ could be in charge of the café for a while, clean up her own mess, and suffer through the excruciating process of using the crippled machine while dealing with grumpy customers. Maybe she’d gain a little common sense from the experience.

In the back, he returned the toolkit to its home under the stock shelves. Then he curled up in a dark corner of the breakroom and had just a tiny little freak out session. Surely the boss would understand, right? ‘She strong-armed me,’ he would say. ‘You’re bigger than her,’ the Boss would say. ‘Okay but she’s very agile,’ Marco would reply. ‘Maybe if you’re such a lumbering oaf, then you aren’t cut out to be a supervisor,’ the Boss would say. ‘No Boss please,’ he would beg. No. Darn it, this wasn’t sounding great in his head. They needed to fix that machine.

By the time he cooled off and returned to the bar, Star was a total mess. The machine was oozing strange fluids from every seam, it was making weird grinding sounds, and it was only producing a droplet of espresso every few seconds. The poor girl was apologizing profusely to every customer, each of them growing more and more frustrated with every passing moment, some of them throwing their hands up in the air, cursing and leaving the store without their drinks.

Star was frantically running back and forth between the machine and the till when she noticed Marco’s return. She turned to him with a look of relief and begged him, “Marco please, help me out here. I’m sorry, okay. Please?”

Marco assessed the chaos in the café and made a snap judgement that would surely save their Sunday service (though probably not their sales). He pulled out the emergency customer loyalty coupons – to be used as an absolute last measure to redeem a poor customer service interaction. He normally had an annual quota of ten coupons, but this was definitely an emergency. The Boss would understand. Hopefully.

He stood on a little footstool behind the bar and bellowed out over the sound of the thunderous, dying machine, “Hi everyone, can I get your attention please,” he puffed out his chest and paused for dramatic effect. “As you can probably tell, our espresso machine is having a rough day. However, for everyone standing in line who’s already placed an order, you can expect a full refund right now. And on top of that, for being so patient, Buck’s is happy to offer you a free cup of any one of our premium drip coffees, _and_ as a sincere apology from _me personally_, I’m going to give each of you a coupon for a free drink the next time you come in. Just don’t tell my boss about this,” he winked. Then he directed Star to start distributing cups of coffee to their patrons while he went around with the coupon book handing out coupons with personalized apologies on each. He thanked every customer for their business and their patience – and a few of them were even so pleased with his kindness and sincerity that they forgot to collect their refund. One of the college students in line even gave Marco a knowing nod and dropped a fiver in the tip jar. Solidarity, sister.

Once the crowd was dealt with, Marco put up a little sign on the door that said their espresso machine was temporarily out of service, and then Star and Marco got to work putting the thing back together properly. He dug out the manufacturer’s instruction manual, but the document was more for bragging about the machine’s features than for servicing it. Maybe they could find something on the internet.

“Wait, I’ve got this,” Star offered, a hint of pride in her voice. She pulled out her Pamphlet and started folding and unfolding it until at last she found a page that had – unbelievably – repair instructions for that very model. “One of the perks of having a universal coffee instruction manual. Instructions for _everything_.”

Marco put his head in his hands, “How did you mess it up this badly if you had _instructions_ for it!?”

“Okay well who reads the instructions? Nerds, that’s who. I’m no nerd.”

Marco took a deep breath, then he took the Pamphlet from her to look over the details. The two of them broke the machine down to its base components, and then followed the manual precisely to put it back together – Marco narrating instructions, and Star handling the tools. It took them a while, but by the time they were done, the thing was running great – even better than before, actually. The instructions in Star’s Pamphlet had little hand-written notes for tweaks to make the machine run even smoother and quieter than it ran out of the factory.

The two of them stood back and marveled at their work. The only thing odd about it was the golden steam wand.

Marco turned to Star and offered her a handshake for a job well done, and Star happily accepted.

Marco pulled the sign off the café’s door. When he returned, he felt like he should say something to Star, something supervisory, something punitive. “You messed up pretty bad there, buddy.”

“Yeah…”

“Again.”

“Yeah… You’re not gonna tell the Boss, are you?”

Marco averted his eyes while he thought about it. If he told the Boss, Star would be out of his hair for good. But he’d probably be fired too. And, even though he hated to admit it, he found himself admiring the crazy courage it took for Star to be so defiant in the pursuit of her goals, to jump into the unknown, and to pull herself together to fix her screwups. It might be fun seeing what else she could do. It livened up the shift a bit, at least. And besides all that… Star really, sincerely wanted to be there. More than he ever had. Probably more than anyone ever had. Maybe if he just gave her a chance. Again.

He looked her in the eye and confronted her, “Most people would’ve dropped their apron and walked away from a mess like that. You really care about this stuff, huh?”

“Yeah, I do. More than anything.”

Marco nodded, “I won’t tell.” He didn’t know why, but he had a feeling, even after all this, that he could count on Star – even if the sky were falling and the ocean were rising to drown them all and the whole place was on fire. She’d stick it out, wouldn’t she?

And no sooner than he had said the words than she gave him a crushing embrace, “Thankyouthankyouthankyou.”

Marco put his hands up in the air to avoid returning her hug. Professionalism. Priority number one. Supervisors should _not_ be hugging subordinates.

Star realized Marco was uncomfortable and quickly stepped back with a quiet apology.

Marco cleared his throat, “Let’s get ready for the next rush, okay? Make sure everything’s nice and clean.”

Star saluted him, “You got it, boss.”

“And uh… for today, could we get that Magic Wand—” man, was he really committing to calling it that? “—off the machine? I’ve had enough excitement for one Sunday.”

“You sure you don’t want to try a special Mewnian cappuccino before I take it off?”

Marco shook his head, but seeing how disappointed Star looked, he had to give her a little hope, “Next time, okay?”

Star subtly pumped her fist like she’d won an argument, “You won’t regret it.”


	3. A Little Trouble

Half an hour. Star was a half hour late for her shift. Thirty-three minutes, actually – and Marco was still counting. She’d better have a really good excuse. His week had been pretty miserable and, for once, he was actually looking forward to a little excitement this weekend. Instead, he was stuck working through his usual fake, circular chore list, tallying up every minute that passed with a grumble or a sigh. And even though he was _supposed_ to be feeling annoyed about this kind of thing, whenever he tried imagining a stern reprimand for Star, it just fizzled out after a few words when he couldn’t help himself from interrupting the fiction to ask her if she was okay. Why was she late? What could keep her away from the café? After what she said last week, after what he’d seen of her unshakeable work ethic, there’s no way Star would bail on a shift – and she was definitely _supposed_ to be in again today. Her name was right there on the schedule. He spotted it a few days ago – crossed out for every morning shift from Wednesday to Saturday, and then handwritten in on Sunday with a grumpy face next to it and a cursive note that said _More Training_.

It was twenty-two minutes later when the phone rang. Star was on the other line, breathing hard, trying to catch her breath, and keeping her voice low.

“Marco!” Star paused for a few frantic breaths, “Uh hi! I was kind of… hoping for the machine, actually. Could you maybe… hang up and uh…”

“No I won’t _hang up_. What are you talking about? Where are you?”

“Oh just uh… out for… a run? An urgent run! Really important. Medical emergency kind of thing.” Star’s voice moved away from the phone. She was yelling at someone, “Hey! That almost got me! Stop throwing things! Hey!! Oh, you’re asking for it!” Marco could make out the sound of Star putting the phone down and then heaving something off into the distance, “Ha ha! Gotcha! Oh. Oh, that was _definitely_ the wrong cup. Okay.” Star returned to the phone, “Hey Marco I gotta go like right now.”

Marco could hear distant yelling from Star’s end of the line – a weird, squeaky voice croaking at full volume, but he couldn’t make out the words.

He jumped on Star before she could hang up, “No no nononno! You can’t _go_! Are you coming in today or not?”

Marco could hear Star running. She was breathing hard again, and she didn’t have a chance to answer his question for a while. When she did respond, she was once again almost entirely out of breath and trying to stay quiet, “Yeah… no… No that’s… probably not a _great_ idea today. Sick day? I get sick days, right?”

“Why? Are you okay? What’s going on over there?”

“I uh… I caught a cold. And had to… run… to the hospital? Because I don’t have a car, you know?”

“And who are you yelling at?”

“A… monkey?”

“In the hospital.”

“Yeah. Doy, Marco, it… Hoo boy—” Star paused to take a deep breath, “—it shouldn’t be in here throwing stuff everywhere. _Someone’s_ gotta yell at it—”

Star was interrupted by that grating voice shouting at her again – this time much closer to the phone, “I’ve got you now, Star Butterfly! Give me the Wand!”

“No! Get out of here, Ludo! I’m supposed to be at work!”

The stranger – Ludo? – clearly had no intention of leaving Star alone, though, since he continued antagonizing her in a snide, chiding tone, “Look at you, so vulnerable out here without your parents around to protect you. There’s no one here to save you, Star! Why don’t you make this easy for yourself and give up? Nothing bad has to happen here. Just hand – it – over!”

Star and the other voice were grunting while they struggled to gain control of something. From what Marco had overheard, they were probably grappling over Star’s Wand.

Marco tried to get Star’s attention by shouting through the phone, “Star! Just come to the café! Whatever’s going on, you’ll be safe here!” That was true, right? If she was here, he could… he could keep her safe, right? Using _karate_ and stuff? She was his protégé after all – it was his sworn duty to keep her safe. If only she could get to the café, he could at least do _something_.

But the line went quiet. No more shouting, no more struggling, no more heavy breathing – just dead silence.

“Star! Star! Come on, Star, answer me!”

Marco tried calling back, but the phone just kept ringing. That wasn’t okay. This wasn’t okay. Star was definitely in trouble out there, but what could he even do? He had no idea where she was or how to find her. Why did she even call if she was being chased by someone? Just run and hide, right? That’s basic common sense, isn’t it? And call the police if you’re in real trouble, not your boss!

Marco paced back and forth behind the counter, completely ignoring the line of customers forming in front of the till. He put his head in his hands and cursed to himself quietly. He couldn’t do anything. So, what? Was he just supposed to just go on with his day? Just _hope_ that Star was okay?

A customer was insistently trying to get Marco’s attention, “Sir. Sir? Sir. Excuse me sir you’re being very rude. I am not having an excellent customer service experience, as guaranteed by your signage. Excuse me, sir!”

“What! What? What. Go ahead.”

“Quadruple americano please. And don’t make it too strong.”

“Don’t make it… What? That’s… How would I even…”

“Oh sorry, is that too complicated for you? Four shots with some hot water? Oh, in a regular cup please.”

“Okay, first of all, that’s not an americano, that’s just like… just a lot of weak, nasty espresso. Second of all, _where_ am I supposed to put the _water_ in a cup full of espresso shots?”

“On top? I don’t see what’s so hard about this, I do it all the time at home.”

“You know what, you’re right, what am I thinking? So obvious.” Marco tried to enter the order into the till, but the screen was showing an error message. “Oh good. Of _course_ it won’t even _let me_ add espresso shots to an americano, because this thing was designed for _normal_ coffee orders. Go figure! Whatever. Twenty bucks! Just drop it on the counter, I can’t deal with this right now.”

The guy clicked his tongue, “_Very_ rude.”

Marco wasn’t about to mess around with the guy’s ridiculous request. He ran the espresso machine to make some noise, but instead of pulling a shot, he just discreetly poured the guy a cup of drip coffee.

“En-_joy_, sir.” Marco handed the customer the faux ‘quadruple’ americano and then called the next customer to the till.

He managed to blast his way through half a dozen other customers with the same stressy, aggressive energy. The whole café had a dark cloud hanging over it by the time he got through the last person in line. He was about to dial Star again when the bell over the front door jangled. _Another_ customer? He had more important stuff to worry about right now, darn it. But when he turned around, his heart skipped a beat. Leaning over the counter was an absolutely frazzled and exhausted Star Butterfly.

‘Star!”

She was trying to clamber over the countertop, “Hey… Give me a hand here…” She was very out of breath.

Marco was too stunned to move, “What happened?”

She reached out her hand expectantly, “Come on. They’re right… behind me…”

Marco helped her over the bar, and as soon as she was over, she curled up under the counter and started whispering frantic apologies, “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know where else to go… I couldn’t do anything…”

“Hey, you’re fine, calm down.”

“We can’t fight him. He’s got like… a whole army or something now. I need way more firepower.”

Firepower? Like, coffee spells? They could be weaponized? Marco wanted to get more information, but he didn’t have time to ask. The café door burst open, and in the doorway stood a weird little green… man? No, there’s no way a human could end up looking like that. The creature was maybe two feet tall with just the gnarliest skin Marco had ever seen. And for now, the little guy was doubled over gasping for air. He was soon joined by a few more exhausted monstrous-looking creatures.

One of the panting monsters spoke up with a little hope in her voice, “Hey boss, are we… stopping for coffee? ‘Cause we… could really use… a break here…”

When the little green guy spoke, he shouted through a fleshy, curved beak – and boy, for such a little monster, he sure was loud. “No, you nincompoop! We are not stopping for coffee! The girl ran in here. Guard the door.” He pointed at a few of his followers, “You three! Go around the back and make sure she doesn’t escape. The rest of you, search the building!” Then he turned to address the café’s patrons, “Where is the girl!?” he demanded. He started crawling under and climbing on top of tables, knocking cups and napkins onto the floor. “Where is she!? I know you’re here, _Star_!”

Meanwhile, a handful of his goons fanned out to search the building.

Marco was careful not to glance over at Star – he didn’t want to give her position away – but out of the corner of his eye he could see her shaking her head and crossing her arms in a big X. As if Marco would be stupid enough to tell this weirdo where she was hiding. Unfortunately, the shop’s patrons weren’t exactly on Marco’s side today after how rude he was being before, and everyone in the café sold Star out almost immediately when the ugly little creature started messing up their tables. The whole room pointed firmly at the bar with a chorus of, “She’s over there.”

He strutted over to the counter like he was six feet tall, staring Marco down, his beak twisting into a sicker and sicker grin with every step. He was savoring this. He called out to the other side of the counter, “There’s nowhere to run now, Star. Come on out. You’ve kept me from my precious prize for far too long, but I’ve _won_! I’ve finally _won_, and _nothing_—”

“—Excuse me sir,” Marco interrupted, “But you’re being extremely loud and disruptive. This is a quiet, family-friendly establishment, and you’re preventing our other guests from enjoying our fine coffee products in peace. If you keep this up, I’m going to have to ask you and your friends to leave.”

Marco wasn’t sure this tactic was going to have any effect, but to his surprise, the little guy apologized sheepishly, “Oh yes right, sorry,” before continuing his tirade in a shouty whisper, “—_nothing is going to stand in my way_!”

Star stood up from behind the counter, emboldened by Marco’s intervention maybe? She started mocking the little guy by pretending to be unable to hear him, “Say what? You’ve giving up, going back to Mewni, and leaving me alone forever? Ludo, that’s so reasonable of you! Are you turning over a new leaf?”

Ludo stomped his foot down and continued his whispered shouting, “No! I’m not _turning over a new leaf_. I’m getting my _prize_. Give me the Wand! Or I’ll be forced to use—”

Marco interrupted again, “Hi, sorry, sir? You’re kind of standing in the way there. There are some customers behind you. Are you going to order something? No? If not, I’m afraid your party will need to leave. We have a strict ‘no loitering’ policy. My boss would be very upset if she knew I wasn’t enforcing it.”

Ludo growled and grumbled, then he forced one of his minions to kneel in front of the till so he could climb up high enough to read the menu. Star backed away a bit when she saw Ludo’s gross little head pop up on the other side of the counter, but she still jeered at him, “How about you suck back a tall cup of dirt, Ludo?”

“Star, we don’t serve dirt here, and we don’t talk to our guests that way. Go put your apron on and get ready to make his order.”

“Are you _serious_?”

“All our customers are equal at Buck’s, Star. Now hurry up. I need all the customer service _firepower_ I can get up here,” Marco pointed at the espresso machine and trilled his fingers like a magician. He gave her a quick wink, and she mouthed a silent, “Ohhhhh,” and nodded her understanding before hurrying into the back to get her uniform on.

Marco turned to Ludo with his well-honed customer service smile, “Sorry, sir. She’s new.”

Ludo giggled with delight, “Oh I like this. The _proud_ Star Butterfly, forced into servitude, made to fulfil the petty whims of these pathetic simpletons.”

The quadruple-americano guy shouted an offended, “Hey!”

Ludo continued, “You have no idea how long I’ve waited to see her brought so low, to serve _me_, the only prince in all of Mewni to ever be denied a seat at the Butterfly Café. This is truly a great day for Ludo’s army.” He smiled creepily, then returned his attention to deciphering the Buck’s menu. “Now what is… doppio? That sounds dirty.”

Marco tried his best to explain each of the drinks for Ludo in as convoluted a way as he could manage to give Star some extra time.

When she returned, Ludo was still thoroughly distracted by the menu. She took the opportunity to quickly swap out the steam wand on the machine for her own – exactly what Marco hoped she would do. Whatever untapped resources she had at her disposal, Marco had a feeling they were about to need them. These stalling tactics would only last for so long.

Ludo was almost done pondering the menu, and he wasn’t finding anything he wanted. He addressed his stepping stool subordinate, “This menu is really quite dull, isn’t it? Nothing like the selection at the Butterfly Café. I don’t know, minion, what would you get?”

“You can’t go wrong with a cappuccino, boss.”

“No! Idiot! You know I can’t do milk. What’s wrong with you? _Cappuccino_. Stupid.”

“An americano?” the minion offered.

“An _ameri_—are you _mocking_ me?” Ludo hopped off his stepping stool, ordered some of his other goons to take the guy outside and ‘deal with him’. Then he climbed up onto a replacement minion.

Marco tried to steer Ludo in the right direction, “Don’t worry, sir, I’m sure we’ve got just the right drink for you.” He put careful emphasis on his words to hint to Star what his plan was, “How about something… _extremely calming_? Like, _sleep-inducingly_ calming?”

“No, absolutely not, this is a day for celebration. We need something flashy, something big, something _energizing_.”

Marco turned to Star, “Flashy, huh. Well newbie? Anything on the secret menu for the fine gentleman and his party?” He turned to Ludo, “You are getting drinks for _everyone_, right? No loitering, remember. That goes for all your friends.”

“Yes yes, that’s fine,” Ludo opened a tiny coin purse of shook out its contents – a handful of large gold coins and a few polished gemstones – onto the counter. “Have the _servant girl_ make us whatever you think is best. Then send her over to give up the Wand.”

“Of course, sir, though you’ll have to wait until her break for whatever business you’ve got with her. She’s absolutely not permitted to fraternize with her friends while she’s on the clock.”

Ludo protested, “We are _not_ friends!”

“Sir, please, I’m not falling for that again. I got chewed out last time I let her mess around. I told you, my boss is very strict.”

Ludo growled, “Grr… fine! Fine. We’ll wait.” He grumbled and made his way up to a table. He shoved the people sitting there out of their chairs and sat down with some of his minions. He stared intently at Star while she worked on their drinks, a just… real nasty look in his eyes. Marco could not get over how gross this guy was.

Star, meanwhile, was working away at a dozen copies of the same drink. She had quite the look on her face, eyes squinted, muttering to herself, furrowing her brows, shaking her head every so often.

“Hey, you okay there?”

“No, I’m not _okay_ Marco,” she whispered back, “You think I just remember how to make _Glistering Mint Caffe Notturno_ off the top of my head? Huh? We don’t even use the right beans for this here.”

“What is that?”

“Tranquillizer coffee. Right? That’s what you wanted, right? Please tell me that was your plan.”

“Most of it.”

“What’s the rest of it?”

“Uh. I didn’t have a ‘rest of it’, just gonna wing it.”

“Oh good, very reassuring, thank you.” Star closed her eyes and thought about it for a moment, then she smiled, “I’ve got a better idea.” She poured all the drinks she’d been working on down the sink and started a new batch.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m giving them something _flashy_. It’s a big day for Ludo, after all. He’s finally going to get my Wand.”

“What? No, Star, I was bluffing, we’re not giving him your Wand.”

Star spoke louder so Ludo could hear, “Come on, Marco, it’s for my own good. Ludo is clearly too powerful to be messed with. There’s no point trying to put it off. It’s time for me to give up on being the Magical Barista of Butterfly Café and hand over the Wand to a truly worthy wielder.”

While she was putting on her theatrics, Star pulled out the espresso machine’s mundane, steel steam wand from her pocket and handed it to Marco. “Do me a favor and polish the ‘Wand’ up real nice. It should look totally pristine and _authentic_ when I hand it over, don’t you think? Shiny and _gold_?”

Oh. Oh, that was a _good_ plan, Marco marveled to himself. He nodded along and took the steel steam wand. He didn’t know how Star had planned for him to change the wand’s color, but he had an idea. He’d learned a cool trick in one of his chemistry classes at college about coloring steel using heat. Something to do with oxide layers or something. The details weren’t super important, he just needed to scuff up the surface of the steel and throw it in the toaster oven for a while.

When Star’s drinks were done at last, Marco kind of recognized them as cortados, but they were definitely not normal. The surface of the drinks swirled and shifted back and forth from red to blue in a hypnotic way. She put everything on a tray and brought the drinks out for Ludo and his minions, saving Ludo’s for last. She delivered it with a begrudging curtsey, “Oh mighty Prince Ludo, please enjoy this humble Earth-style cortado. I know it isn’t much, but it’s got a real punch to it. I think you’ll like it.”

Ludo smiled and took his drink from Star, “I’ll be waiting right here for your break, Star Butterfly. Don’t keep me waiting long.”

“Oh, don’t worry. I’m feel pretty tired after all that running, I’ll be taking my break soon.”

“Excellent. Excellent! Today is Ludo’s day!” He laughed madly and downed the whole cortado in one gulp, and ordered his minions to join in. “Oh, that’s actually quite good. Was that on the menu?”

Star smiled and tilted her head, “Nope. Family secret. Okay, see you in a bit with the Wand!”

Star returned to the counter and asked Marco how the counterfeit Wand was coming along. he pointed to the toaster oven, which had a few minutes left on the timer.

“You’re… toasting it? I figured you’d use one of those fancy gold markers for the special board or something.”

“Oh. Yeah, you know what, that probably would have been easier, huh? Oh well, too late now. What was that drink you gave them?”

“_Super Booster Bomb_. It’s a huge magic buff – with a huge crash. He’s going to feel absolutely on top of the world for a while.”

“…Why?”

The toaster oven dinged.

Star didn’t answer, and instead asked Marco, “Is it ready?”

He carefully pulled out the hot wand, and sure enough, the surface of the steel had shifted from a neutral silver to a yellowish tint. “Looks about right.” He ran it under cold water, did his best to polish it up with a rag, then handed it over to Star.

She inspected it and shrugged, “Good enough!” Then she called out, “Break time!” She threw her apron off and put on an act about being super sad about handing over the ‘Wand’. “You’ve totally, totally beat me Ludo. You’d better take good care of this. My mom is totally going to kill me when she finds out I lost it.”

Ludo swiped it from her as soon as it was within his reach. “Ha! You can’t do anything now, Star! I’ll do whatever I want!” Then he started speaking to the ‘Wand’, “Show me what you’ve got baby!” He swung it around like… well, like a more traditional magic wand, you know, like a wizard might use? And to Marco’s amazement and horror, it started firing sparks all over the café.

Marco immediately ran up to Ludo and told him he could _not_ use that fire hazard in the store, and luckily Ludo was more than happy to run out the front door with his army and his treasure. He started flinging bolts of electricity into the sky with glee, and, even through the glass façade of the café, Marco could hear Ludo laughing like a maniac while the little creep ran down the street and out of sight.

Marco was a little dumbfounded, and uttered a simple, “Huh.”

Star beamed and clapped Marco on the shoulder, “Hey, it worked! Nice little light show, huh? Bet he feels real special right now.”

“How long before he figures out, you think?”

“He’s kind of an idiot, Marco. I’m guessing like… weeks.”

“If he’s such an idiot, how did he manage to give you so much trouble?”

“Because he’s a creep with an _army_. He found my apartment just waited outside to ambush me,” Star rubbed her arm anxiously, “Which… sucks… ‘cause now it’s not… really…” She sighed, “Well it’s fine, I’ll just carry extra ammo when I leave the house next time.”

“Uh, you’ll need you Wand for that, though, right?”

“Yeah doy, Marco.”

“Well… small problem with that.” Marco pointed to the espresso machine. Star’s real Magic Wand still fused with the steel fittings. “This thing still needs some kind of a steam wand, or the Boss is going to do something real bad to us.”

“Ah.”

“Yeah.”

“Well. That… sucks.”

Star looked pretty melancholy for the rest of the shift, and Marco couldn’t stand it. She’d dealt with so much today, and he was barely any help at all. But if they left the machine a crucial component, the next shift would definitely tell the Boss, and the Boss would definitely freak out. Like, potentially murderously freak out.

Marco spent his break on the phone with the espresso machine’s manufacturer.

“How much? $500!? Are you serious?” He took a deep breath, “Okay. And super express shipping?” He inhaled sharply through his teeth, “Yikes. Okay. Okay fine, what’s the total?”

Marco ended the call, out $650, but at least the replacement part was guaranteed to arrive tomorrow morning. He could just hang out at the café and intercept the package, then make the swap himself. He’d just… abuse his deputy shift supervisor sticker for one day. No one would question that, right? He penciled his name into the schedule, left a message with the real shift supervisor to come in late, and just like that, the plan was in motion.

Marco returned from his break to chat with Star, “So here’s the deal. I’ve got a replacement wand coming in the morning, but the morning guys need something to use in the meantime. You _can_ take the Wand with you tonight, but you’ve got to be back here with it tomorrow before we open.”

Star raised an eyebrow with suspicion, “What do you mean ‘you’ve got a replacement coming’? You convinced the Boss?”

“Oh no, no we will never _ever_ tell the Boss about this.”

“So…”

Marco looked away. He didn’t want to make Star feel guilty, but he really didn’t have any other choice than to pay for it out of his own pocket. It was his shift. His responsibility. “It was uh… covered by the warranty.”

Star still looked skeptical.

“Look, just be here first thing tomorrow, okay?”

Star hesitated for a moment, then she nodded. “Thank you. For taking care of that. I’ll bring you something nice in the morning, okay?”

Marco smiled, “You’d better.”

After their shift ended, Marco held the front door open for Star, then locked it shut for the night.

Wand in hand, Star gave him a little wave, “Well, see you tomorrow.”

Marco raised his hand to return her wave, but he paused and caught himself feeling really guilty all of a sudden, “Hey uh. Ludo. He’s kind of dangerous, hey?”

“Yeah… I mean in a weirdly embarrassing kind of way.”

“You… okay? To get home? Do you have anyone you can stay with maybe?”

Star put on a confident air, “What are you talking about? I can take care of myself. I’ll be ready for him next time.”

“Are you ready for him, like, right now?”

Star hesitated to answer.

“Look, say no if it’s weird, but… I don’t mind walking you home. Just in case he shows up again. You might need the backup, right?”

Star started to refuse, but instead she rolled her eyes, shrugged, and gave Marco a kind of defeated smile, “I don’t normally like having a bodyguard, but… okay. I’ll make an exception. You’re _obviously_ just going to worry about it all night.”

“I am definitely going to do that anyways.”

“Well don’t.” Star pointed up the street and led the way, “My place is about fifteen minutes this way.”

Marco kept a professional three feet distance between the two of them at all times. He was just escorting his subordinate home – a ‘safe walk’ is what they called it at the college. This was neither unusual nor unprofessional.

Star pointed out a few of her favorite places to shop and eat along the way, and asked Marco if he had any recommendations, since she was new to Echo Creek. “I haven’t really had a chance to go out too much. Been really, _really_ bored lately. Is there anything fun to do around here?”

“There’s the movie theater.”

“_Please_. They only have two movies. From like ten years ago. And I’ve seen them both four times already.”

“Uh. The… creek has some interesting trash in it sometimes?”

Star looked at him with deep concern on her face, “Marco do you… actually know how to have fun?”

“Yes. Shut up. I have tons of fun.”

“Yeah? What’s a _Marco Diaz_ adventure look like?”

“I go camping sometimes. That’s fun. What? Don’t look at me like that. Camping is _objectively_ fun, Star. Everyone loves camping.”

“By yourself?”

“Yeah? So?”

“Marco.”

“I have friends!”

“I didn’t say anything!”

“They just don’t like camping, okay? Fine, what do _you_ do for fun?”

“Well I used to dance and hang with my bestie back home, but… you know, _just me_ out here. Uh, speaking of,” Star pointed to a kind of rundown low-rise apartment, “This is me.”

“_This_?”

“What?”

“I dunno, I guess I was expecting something a little… cuter?”

“Hey, that’s funny, so was I.”

Marco realized he’d just put his foot firmly in his mouth. Considering she’d lost most of her shifts the past few weeks, Star was probably going to have a rough time making her rent this month. She definitely didn’t need to hear that her apartment looked super depressing on top of her financial woes.

Star stopped in front of the main entrance to the building and turned to Marco. She rubbed the back of her head awkwardly, “So. Thanks. For this.”

“It’s all good. I’d hate to never see you again.”

“Oh please, no need to be so dramatic. I’m fine. Really. Don’t worry about me, okay?”

That was definitely easier said than done, though. From the sound of it, Star really didn’t have anywhere to turn if things got bad for her. Marco couldn’t accept that. No one should have to be totally on their own in the world.

“Hold on,” Marco stopped her as she was turning to head inside. He pulled out a pen and a crumpled up receipt from his pocket, then wrote something on the paper and handed it to Star.

“What’s this? Your phone number?”

“Yeah.”

Star smiled coyly, “I’m not going on a date with you, Marco Diaz.”

“No! Obviously. It’s for… if you… if that creepy little guy is bothering you again. I just thought… you’re new to Echo Creek, you’ve got a weird violent stalker from another dimension, and your first instinct is to call your _employer_ when you’re in danger – this whole situation sounds bad. So, you know, if you need something, just send me a message or whatever. I’ll do what I can. I know _karate_, you know, so I can put up a pretty good fight. So, you know, if anyone’s harassing you—”

Star put the receipt in her pocket, “You look after all your co-workers like this?”

“Just the ones from other dimensions.”

“Well aren’t you a big softie.” Star turned and waved, “See you tomorrow.”

“Don’t be late.”

She waved her Wand in the air, “Not even an army of monsters could stop me now.”

Marco turned back towards the café. Star’s place had been in the exact opposite direction that he needed to go to get home. On the walk back, he played the day over in his head. Star really had a lot more going on than he ever could have imagined back when she first started messing up his calm Sunday afternoons. But he was glad he could do something to help her. He hated to see people struggling or suffering, and she definitely seemed like she needed someone dependable in her life. All he could do was be available for her if she needed it. Hopefully that was enough to help her feel safer, less alone.

He checked his phone when he got home. One new message. What the heck was that area code? ⚔️🦄🌈?

| **Star** |   
---|---|---  
| _hey it’s Star thanks again  
  
_ |   
| _no problem._ |   
| _your phone number is crazy.  
  
_ |   
| _and yours is so boring that all the colors on my phone just turned grey  
  
_ |   
| _can’t argue with that._ |   
| _see you tomorrow.  
  
_ |   
| _👍_ |   
| _I happen to like camping by the way_ |   
| _not super great at it though  
  
_ |   
| _i’m doing a trip in a few weeks for reading break._ |   
| _lots of room in the car._ |   
| _i can drop you off at a camp site if you want.  
  
_ |   
| _wow that almost sounds fun_ |   
| _being abandoned in the woods to fend for myself  
  
_ |   
| _uh yeah that’s the whole fun part of it.  
  
_ |   
| _shame neither of us has any friends to go with  
  
_ |   
| _again I want to make it clear: i do have friends.  
  
_ |   
| _oh sure I bet you do_ |   
| _well it’s a very kind offer but I probably won’t survive a camping trip on my own  
  
_ |   
| _fair enough. let me know if you change your mind.  
  
_ |   
| _👍_ |   
  
Marco was on edge the whole time he was texting with Star. He rewrote every message about a dozen times. He had to be very careful not to be too friendly with her. Why was she being so casual with him? Didn’t she know about maintaining a professional distance? She was a subordinate, after all. And he definitely couldn’t go camping with her. That would be so unprofessional that he might as well shred his shift supervisor sticker right then and there.

But… he couldn’t help feeling that maybe it would be nice to go camping with someone else for once. Maybe someone… oh, say… super energetic and cheerful, and persistent in the face of any hardship. You know, someone fun and dependable? Someone who was, maybe, hypothetically speaking, a magical barista from another dimension?

Marco shook his head to get it out of his mind, but the seed was planted.


	4. Breakthrough

Sunday rolled around again, and this time Star made sure to leave her apartment a whole hour early – just in case anything weird happened. She double-checked her bag on the way out the door to make sure she packed a few _Prismatic Devastation Energy Shots_ for protection. When she went to close her front door, it was as stubborn as ever. It just didn’t fit in the frame right and the landlord didn’t care enough to fix it even after Star repeatedly asked for him to come take a look at it. She grumbled while she struggled to pull it closed and wrestled with the deadbolt, letting out a tired sigh when she finally got it. Sure would be nice if she could afford a better place. But nope. Another week, another ‘screwup’, another remedial Sunday shift. And frankly, that whole situation didn’t make any sense. Star was so nice to every single customer – even the rude ones – and her coffee was ~amazing~, but every single week since she started, she got a phone call Wednesday morning telling her that all her shifts were cancelled. It sucked, but she figured things could be worse. At least on Sundays, Marco let her get away with practicing a few of her recipes without making too much fuss about it. So what if her rent money was rapidly evaporating? She’d be _fine_. Living under a bridge. Eating garbage. _Just_ fine.

Her walk to work turned out to be entirely uneventful, giving her plenty of time to mull over some things that were bothering her. Like how the Boss never told her what she was doing wrong, and how the drinks at Buck’s were actually depressingly bland, and how Marco had stopped responding to her texts so maybe things were going to be awkward today, and how Ludo was probably going to figure out his wand was fake soon and she’d have to deal with that whole situation again, and how her mom wouldn’t stop asking about her progress with the Pamphlet – which was not going as great as Star had hoped. Maybe it would be nice if just a _little_ catastrophe ruined her walk to work – you know, to take her mind off things. But nope, catastrophe was apparently taking the day off.

When Star got to Buck’s, the café was eerily quiet. Empty cups were littered on literally every table, half the lights were out, and Janna was alone in the building, leaning on the back counter, reading a book.

Even though she didn’t look up from her book, Janna called out to Star in a friendly tone, “Hey, it’s Echo Creek’s least employable magical girl. You’re in early, huh?”

Star approached the counter, but Janna still wouldn’t peel her eyes off the pages of her book. The cover said _Fifth Dimensional Spooks and How to Woo Them_.

“Yeah, I was late last week. Figured I should make up the time.”

“Sure dude, clock in whenever. I’m not making you work, though.”

“You sure? I could uh… clean up a bit if you want. It's kind of a war zone in here. Did you have a big rush or something?”

Janna closed her book with a satisfying clap and then looked around the café to see what Star was talking about. “No, that – dear Star – is my art installation. Buck’s is my gallery. We have an arrangement.”

“You have an arrangement to leave dirty cups all over the place?”

“I call it an arrangement. The cups are _arranged_. You ordering something?”

“Oh, sure. Cappuccino?”

“You got it dude. Have a seat, I’ll bring it out.”

“I won’t mess up your ‘art’ if I throw out a few cups?” Star teased.

Janna rolled her eyes theatrically with a smile, “I _guess_ I’ll let it slide this time.”

Star collected a few of the scattered containers from a table in the corner by the window, tossed them in the trash, and then took a seat. She stared out at the street and the flickering sign on the Quick Stop on the other side of the road – and tried to ignore the _Now Hiring_ sign in their window. Instead she focused on how quiet the street was. No pedestrians. Only an occasional car. Echo Creek was kind of a ghost town on Sunday mornings. Maybe it wasn’t Janna’s fault there weren’t any customers? But uh… Star got the feeling Marco was right; Janna was probably going out of her way to keep customers out of the building. The question is: was she trying to sabotage Marco’s sales numbers, or was she just trying to avoid working too hard? (And sabotaging poor Marco’s sales numbers in the process.)

Janna came over and sat down across from Star with two cups – a fancy cup with a tired-looking on-spec Buck’s cappuccino in it, and the other a plain mug of black coffee.

Star grimaced at Janna’s choice of drink, “You _like_ the drip coffee here?”

“_The best drip south of Seattle_. And it only gets better with age. Want some?”

Star put her hand up to refuse, “Pass.” Even from across the table, she could practically taste the acrid drink just from the smell. That coffee must have been hours old.

“Missing out, dude.” Janna took a swig, “Aw yeah, that’s the stuff.” She leaned back in her chair, draped an arm over the back of the chair next to her, and casually launched into a conversation with Star, “So what’s your deal? Boss really doesn’t like you, huh?”

Star replied sarcastically, “Yeah? You think?”

“What’d you do?”

Star realized that Janna was fully intending to abandon the till to hang out with her over here. Which was nice of her, but uh… wasn’t Janna afraid of getting in trouble with the Boss?

Star sighed, “I dunno. She won’t even tell me. Just keeps cancelling all my shifts and sending me back here for more training.”

“Yeah that sounds on-brand for her. She’s pretty particular about stuff. Have you considered keeping your head down and _not_ messing up?”

“Oh yeah. Great advice. Totally never thought of that. And I’d love to follow it. But I can’t.” Star pointed to her cappuccino, “See this? This is ‘keep your head down’ coffee. By the book. And it’s not great. It’s not just me, right? I never see anyone _enjoy_ any of the drinks that come straight out of the Buck’s handbook. But customers just keep coming back, even though everything on the menu is super dull. What’s up with that?”

Janna shrugged, “Location’s good.”

“Is it?”

“It’s pretty close to the college and downtown, so yeah I’d say so. And you probably haven't figured it out yet, but Echo Creek's not exactly a hub for coffee snobs. No one cares.”

Star put her first in her palm decisively, “I'll make them care, darn it.”

Janna laughed, “Good luck, dude. I hope you don't get fired before then. This place could use a shakeup.”

Star couldn’t help thinking that getting fired from Buck’s must be quite a challenge if Janna could get away with all this. Maybe there really was some kind of arrangement. Some kind of blackmail thing? The contrast between how Janna and Marco treated the Boss was bewildering. It didn’t seem fair that Marco felt so anxious about everything going right and keeping the Boss happy. Star was pretty sure the guy had even paid for that replacement part out of his own pocket. He'd probably never fess up about it to her or to the Boss, but it would be pretty messed up if he felt like that was his responsibility. If anyone should have paid for it, it should have been Star. She’d have to find out how much it cost him and pay him back. One day. Somehow. She wrote a little mental IOU to Marco in her head.

Star’s imaginary bookkeeping was interrupted when a customer came in. Janna didn’t seem to notice the bell over the door jangling, so Star pointed him out, “Looks like you might actually have to do some work today.”

Janna gave Star a knowing smile, “We’ll see about that,” then she got up and casually returned to the till.

As soon as Janna got there, the customer approached the counter, but Janna didn’t even acknowledge him. She just went over to the espresso machine and started making something on her own. And when the customer did try to order, Janna put her finger up and hushed the guy, “Patience, dude. Working on another order.”

And then, while Star watched in absolute disbelief, Janna returned to the table and sat down with a second round of drinks for the two of them.

“So,” Janna asked casually, like she wasn’t ignoring a customer at all, “You having fun with Marco?”

“Oh. Uh,” Star looked over at the guy, who was waiting in shock and disbelief for Janna to come back, “You’re not going to…” Star nodded her head towards the bar.

“What? Oh, no dude, you were here first. He can wait. So? Marco?”

Who _was_ this girl?

“Yeah. I mean, he’s not exactly fun, but he seems sweet.”

And anxious.

And strict. Kind of. He wanted to be strict, anyways. He was still pretty patient about her breaking things and messing up the café, wasn't he? What was up with that? Like, even though she'd been causing him a whole bunch of trouble since she got here, he still went way too far helping her out of a bad situation last week.

But even after all that, he was still acting cold towards her! What was his deal? She’d kind of hoped they could be… well, maybe it was expecting too much. Was it always this hard to make friends?

“Is he always so weird about people?” Star asked.

“Weird how? Dude has many dimensions of weird.”

“Like, uh… how do I put it… He _cares_ a lot, right? But he’s not super _friendly_. Does that make sense?”

“Oh, yeah dude. Good _luck_ getting into the _Marco Diaz Friend Zone_. Guy has a personal bubble made of bulletproof glass. The only reason I know anything about him is from digging around in his diary.”

“Pff. Marco keeps a diary?”

“Marco Diaz is very in touch with his emotional self, Star.”

“Anything juicy in there?”

“Sorry dude, that's protected information. My eyes only. Break into his house yourself if you want to see his deepest darkest secrets.”

“Aww you're no fun.”

Janna took another swig from her coffee before responding with a sly, playful look on her face, “I’m more fun than you know how to handle, newbie.”

“Really. What’re you into?”

“Dangerous rabbit hole there, dude. Probably want to steer clear of the fun zone unless you’re looking to get in on some felonious and/or blasphemous _activities_.”

Star raised an eyebrow, but she wasn’t about to be scared off so easily. She’d been in Echo Creek a month already and she still didn’t have anyone to hang out with outside of work. She was going to go crazy soon – and right now, troublemaker Janna was looking like the most promising friend candidate she had.

“Okay, how about _legal_ things? Do you do any legal things for fun?”

“Hmm. Yeah that’s a good question. Let’s see… uh…” Janna started silently counting somethings off on her fingers.

Star closed her eyes and let out a sharp breath to reorient herself, “Okay let’s start over. How about camping? Do you like camping?”

“Depends. Why?”

“I decided – entirely on my own – that I want to do a camping trip. But I don’t want to go alone. I would totally not survive. Like, I don’t have a tent, and I can’t even start a fire.”

“Hmm, yeah, I can see why you’d want me around. I’ve been known to start a few fires. How haunted is the campground? Are we talking a _vengeful spirits guarding an ancient burial ground_ kind of thing, or just a _some guy died in the woods ten years ago_ situation?”

“Uh I would hope neither of those things. What’s wrong with you?”

“Oh gross, a _regular_ camping trip? I dunno, dude. When?”

“Uh… in two weeks?”

“Oh _really_.”

“What?”

“Reading week.”

“What about it?”

“You’re not a student.”

“So?”

“So it’s pretty _convenient_ that Marco’s also going camping that week, isn’t it?”

“How do you know—”

“Well Star, in addition to being in touch with his emotional self, Marco’s also very in touch with his _anal time management_ self. Diary’s full of itineraries. For _years to come_. Also, he goes camping every reading week.”

Star sighed, “Fine. He mentioned the trip last week. And I’m super bored, and I have no one to hang out with, and I thought it’d be nice to go camping with someone. I was trying to convince him to let me tag along, but I might have been too forward or something, I dunno. Maybe if one of his friends wanted to go—”

“Whoa hold up there. ‘One of his friends’? _Me_? You think I'm _Marco's_ friend?”

“You’re not? You’re always pranking him and joking around and stuff. You read his _diary_.” Wait, was Janna _not_ kidding about breaking into Marco’s house? Did she really steal Marco's diary?

“I told you, dude, he doesn't let any of us into his weird little bubble. I'm just a coworker to the guy.” Janna waved her hand dismissively and looked out the window, “I wouldn’t be much of a bargaining chip for you.”

Star slumped in her seat a bit. That was pretty disheartening. Not even Janna was friends with Marco? Then what chance did she have? Maybe she should just give up on the idea and accept that Marco was just unreachable.

Janna rolled her shoulders uncomfortably and rolled her eyes with a little sigh. She must have noticed Star's sunken spirits. “Come on, dude, don't get like that. Look, I'll let you in on a little secret.”

Star gasped, “_No_,” then leaned in and whispered, “A _diary_ secret?”

“No, this one’s actually pretty obvious to anyone with eyes in their head. If you can get that Jackie girl to join your campout party, you’d have him hooked for sure. He's _super_ into that chick. No idea why or how. They've only shared maybe thirty words in their lifetime – but Star, the human heart, it is full of very stupid mysteries, and Marco’s mysterious and very stupid human heart is your key to getting in on that camping trip.”

_Jackie_. The name sounded familiar. “Is that the girl with the cute freckles and the green in her hair? He’s into that kind of thing, huh? I guess that explains why he always turns into a weird pile of mush whenever she comes in.”

“I told you, Marco has whole dimensions of weird.”

“Yeah, like, for example, it’s pretty weird that he would rather hang out with a customer than a coworker. Coworkers are way cooler than customers. The hierarchy is obviously _friends, animals_, _classmates_, _coworkers_, _customers_, _weirdos on the street_.”

Janna shrugged, “Well she’s probably a special case. We've all known each other since grade school, and I can tell you, that crush goes back a long time. Anyways, here’s the deal: if you get her on board, I’ll tag along too. Wouldn’t want to miss out on seeing Marco Diaz stumble all over himself trying to impress a girl he’s somehow managed to barely know for over a decade.”

The guy waiting at the counter had finally had enough and grumpily approached the table, “Hey, do work here or not?”

Janna replied with a nonchalant, “Sure do.”

“I’ve been waiting at the counter for at least ten minutes while you’re over here chatting.”

“You sure have been. You’re a real trooper, buddy.” Janna got up from the table and clapped the guy on the shoulder, “On behalf of Buck’s Café, I hereby award you a free drink for your unshakeable optimism. What do you want?”

“Oh. Thank you. Chai latte, no cinnamon, large.”

Janna made her way back behind the counter while complimenting the guy’s choice, “Cool, yeah, that sounds alright.” Then she picked up the carafe of hours-old _not-Seattle’s best_ from its burner, sloppily poured some of it into a regular paper cup, then handed the drink over to the customer, “There you go, dude. Enjoy your free drink.”

The customer stared at the beverage with a confused look on his face, “I don’t think you heard me right. I said I want a large chai latte, hold the cinnamon.”

“Yeah I hear you, man. It’s great to have ambitions like that. If you keep working at it, I’m sure you’ll get there one day. Dream that big dream, right?”

“Listen, I don’t know what you’re playing at here—”

Janna pointed to the guy’s cup, “Look, that’s your free drink, dude. You want your off-menu, cinnamon chai whatever, it’s gonna be like ten bucks and fifteen minutes.”

The customer frowned, “That ridiculous, but you know what? I’ll call your bluff. Do it. I can wait.”

“Come on dude, why?”

“Because you’re the only coffee shop in a mile that vaguely appears to be open right now, and I – want – a – chai – latte.”

Janna sighed, “Fine. I’ll be back.” She popped the till open with a deft strike, pulled out a twenty, then threw her apron on the counter and called out to Star, “Hey make sure no one robs us, I gotta go get this dingus some spices.”

The bell over the door rang as Janna left, leaving Star alone in the empty café with the completely dumbstruck customer.

“Is she serious?” he asked.

“I wish I could tell you. What is chai, anyways?”

“Spice tea. From India. It’s therapy for the soul – and my soul could really use some healing after the week I’ve been having. You really don’t serve chai tea here?”

Star shook her head, “No, I guess not, sorry. I’ve only ever seen espresso drinks here – and uh… ‘the best drip south of Seattle’,” Star pointed to the guy’s cup.

The customer took a sip and recoiled a bit, “Oh that is just _vile_.” He set the drink on the counter, then sat in a nearby chair with his arms crossed to wait for Janna’s return.

Star felt pretty bad for this guy. Sounded like he had his whole emotional state riding on getting something enjoyable from the menu here – and Star had a feeling that no matter how therapeutic a typical chai latte was, whatever came out of Buck’s was going to be pretty dull and impotent by comparison. It was a shame she didn’t know what the drink actually was. If she did, then maybe she could figure out some way to make it _good_ – you know, actually put a smile on this poor guy’s face? But there wasn’t much she could do right now, so she just killed some time clearing tables and turning the lights back on so the café looked a little more lively. She wasn’t in uniform yet, so she couldn’t really stand behind the counter without looking out-of-place. But as luck would have it, no one else came in while she was waiting. _Ghost town_.

Janna returned shortly carrying a little paper bag with a Spanish store name and logo stamped on the front.

“I hope you’re paying attention, newbie. Buck’s is all about customer satisfaction, and we must always go above and beyond for _any_ customer request.”

“Where’d you go?” Star asked.

“Above. And beyond. I _just said_ pay attention.”

“Okay but like, physically.”

“The little bodega up the block is open on Sundays – in case you ever need something a little fancier than a carton of milk from the Quick Stop.”

Janna dropped the receipt and the change from her purchase into the till, put her apron back on, and then pulled out a bunch of little plastic baggies from the paper bag – each full of a uniquely colorful and fragrant powder. Then she started mixing them together into a potent spice mix. She gave it a sniff, sneezed a bit, and let out a satisfied whisper, “Perfect.” She put some of the mix into a satchel fashioned from a coffee filter, then dropped it into a cup of hot water to steep.

The customer had his arms crossed, impatiently tapping his foot on the floor, staring holes into the back of Janna’s head the whole time she was working.

Once Janna deemed the tea strong enough to serve, she latte’d it up with some steamed milk and called the customer up to collect it. “Hey buddy, here’s your dumb drink. Tell your friends: customer service is number one at Buck’s.”

The guy begrudgingly thanked Janna, handed her ten dollars, and then took a sip from the cup. He immediately spat it out in disgust and slammed the cup back down on the counter, “What _is_ this? It tastes like hot sauce and dirt.”

“Uh yeah excuse me, do you have any idea how hard it is to cobble together an authentic Indian chai spice mix out of the stuff they sell in a Mexican bodega? I think I did a pretty good job.”

Star picked up the customer’s abandoned drink and gave it a sniff. Her eyes lit up with excitement. She _knew_ that smell. “Hey. Hey hold on one second, don’t go anywhere, I’ll be right back.” She ran to the back to get changed into her uniform, then rushed back to the front. When she returned, the guy was trying to get his money back from Janna, who was refusing to comply, insisting that she needed to at least get compensation for the spices that Buck’s just bought.

While the two of them were having it out, Star sampled the scents of the various spice bags, then mixed the bright powders together into her own blend. She also added a bunch of espresso grounds to the mix and decided to take a chance on the café’s espresso machine. Hopefully it had the finesse needed to push hot water through such a strangely packed portafilter without ruining the taste. What came out smelled almost exactly like the drink she was thinking of – _The Burning Heart Rianimato_. All it was missing was a little magic to give it life.

Star pulled out her Pamphlet of Spells and folded her way through it until she found the right section, then she swapped her Magic Steam Wand onto the machine to finish off the drink. Her performance was a bit stilted reading it off the Pamphlet, but it was important to get it right. Style points only came after years of practice, and this was her first time with this one. She whispered the recipe’s incantation and channeled some of her power into the machine while she frothed the milk:

_Despair desires the brilliant art  
That hope provides in darkened days  
Reanimate the burning heart  
That night and sorrow drenched the blaze  
  
Let morning songs restore the light  
While embers dance on living breeze  
The phoenix sheds her ashes white  
Reborn, restored, vibrant, freed_

As the foam thickened up, thin, orange, glowing cracks formed on its surface, making it look, sound, and smell like the white charcoal heart of a raging wood fire.

She topped the drink with the crackling, enchanted milk, then finished it off with her signature butterfly art. She presented the cup to the customer with pride, “Here! Not quite a ‘chai latte’ or whatever, but it’s guaranteed to power you up.”

The customer looked at the drink with caution. “Is this on _fire_?”

“No no no, it’s only magic, don’t worry about it. Just try it!”

The guy raised his eyebrow at the mention of magic, but he was clearly desperate to get something out of this ordeal, so he took a cautious sip. His eyes lit up – not just with delight, but with a literal flash of ember-like light. He looked at Star with disbelief and asked, “What _is_ this?”

“_Rianimato_. ‘Brings any soul back from the brink of despair,’ according to the recipe. Good, right?”

“Yeah,” he replied dreamily, “It is.” He took another sip, and all the misery seemed to evaporate from his face, replaced with a peaceful smile. “This is exactly what I needed. I can’t believe it. Thank you. Thank you.” And, seemingly overtaken by a pleasant fugue, the guy wandered out of the café, muttering statements of awe and bewilderment to himself while he continued to sip at the enchanted drink.

Marco happened to come in through the front door just as the customer was leaving. He looked over his shoulder at the guy and asked the room with a note of concern, “Was he glowing? Our customers aren’t supposed to glow.”

Star defiantly replied, “Well maybe they _should_ glow, Marco. The guy was having a rough day, and we didn’t have anything he wanted on the menu, so I improvised a little pick-me-up for him.”

“Improvised? With your magic?” Marco immediately looked uneasy about the situation.

“You said I could practice!”

“Yeah, while I’m _here_ to make sure nothing goes wrong. Janna’s not going to stop you from doing something crazy. She just wants to watch the world burn, Star.”

Janna confirmed, “He’s not wrong.”

Marco continued on, “What are you doing behind the counter so early, anyways?”

“Hey,” Janna interjected, “Chill out, dude. She was feeling bad about being late last week and she offered to help me out. She’s been here like two hours or something. Real trooper.”

Marco was about to ask for more details when his attention was stolen by a bright light outside the café. He turned to look just in time to see the full effect of a _Rianimato_. In a flash of flame, the customer turned completely white and became frozen in place like a statue. A moment later, the chalky surface of that statue erupted with a network of deep, glowing cracks. It looked exactly like the surface of the enchanted foam – like a hunk of wood left to burn for so long that it turned to white charcoal.

Marco bolted for the door, shouting over his shoulder, “Oh god Star did you just kill that guy? Please tell me we did not just kill a customer.”

Star ran after him and tried to calm him down a bit, “Whaaaat? No. Probably. I mean I’ve never actually _made_ that one before—”

“Not filling me with confidence here, Star.” Marco was visibly freaking out. He had his hair caught up tight in his fists. His eyes were darting all over the place, bouncing back and forth between taking in the smoking statue in front of them and looking desperately to Star for _something_ to make it better.

She did her best to reassure him, “It’s just a reinvigoration spell! It’s totally harmless. You just… just gotta give it a minute, okay? There’s probably like a phase 2 or something.”

Marco turned to face Star and put his hands together in front of his mouth like he was praying, “Star. Please. There is a – burning – dead guy – outside the store I’m supposed to be in charge of, and I am hearing a lot of ‘probably’s that are not making that go away.”

Star pointed emphatically, “Look! Look it’s doing the thing! He’s fine!”

And sure enough, the white chunks of charcoal in between the expanding orange cracks started falling to the ground, exploding when they landed into a chaos of embers that floated gently into the air. And from the shell of the cracked ashen cocoon emerged the customer – different now. Brighter. Happier. Fresher. Reborn. And… angelic. Two majestic gold-feathered wings spread out from his back. He folded them in front of himself, touching them gently with his fingers with a look of awe on his face. He turned to look back at the smoking pile of charcoal and ash that was his former self, then he met eyes with Star.

Star had seen a lot of happy customers when she worked at the Butterfly Café, but she’d never made their drinks herself. That was always her mom’s job. It was like seeing pretty flowers in someone else’s garden.

This. This was the first flower in Star’s own garden.

The reborn man didn’t have any words for Star, but in his eyes, she could see so much warmth and gratitude and kindness. Whatever was weighing him down before was gone. He was free, and she had freed him, and he didn’t know any way to say that other than with this imploring look.

Star gave him a proud smile, “Pretty good, right?”

He nodded silently, joy shaping every line on his face.

Star glanced at Marco, who was still pretty freaked out, “Uh, don’t tell anyone though, okay? That was a secret menu item. Shh.”

The guy nodded again, then gave them a little wave before he took a few steps back to spread his wings and launch himself into the air with a powerful down stroke. The blast of wind blew Star’s hair back and sent a cloud of ash into the sky. By the time the air was clear again, he was gone.

Star turned to Marco and gloated playfully, “See, told you.”

Marco gave Star a grumpy look and spoke with a stern tone, “That was… that was way too much. Whatever that was, you can’t do that anymore, okay? _Smaller_. _Smaller_ spells from now on. Got it?”

“Aw come on—”

“No! First of all, that? That is a _huge_ fire hazard. What if he was still inside the building? The carnage. The chaos. I don’t even want to think about it. Second of all, holy crap Star that was _stupid_ and _insane_ and I’m pretty sure you just chopped a few years off my life. I seriously thought he was cooked and dead and we were all going to prison forever. Please. I’m begging you. For my health. Smaller spells, okay?”

It didn’t feel great to be scolded after doing something so cool. Star was pretty proud of herself for putting that drink together so well, considering all she had to go by was the smell of it, you know? But Marco was kind of right. She didn’t actually know that the spell was going to turn the guy into a fiery statue or whatever. The Pamphlet was never as obvious about the effects of the recipes as it probably should be. So, to be fair, the whole thing could’ve pretty easily gone much, much worse.

Star scowled and bit her lip. She was angry and she wanted to push back, but when she thought about it for more than a second, Marco was right. She lowered her head and gave a sad and shallow nod as a promise to comply with Marco’s request. “Smaller spells. Got it.”

When she looked up, though, Marco was looking like he felt pretty bad about what he was asking of her. He really was a big softie, wasn’t he? How the heck did a guy like him get promoted to management?

After a few seconds of somber thought, Marco straightened himself out and tried to show some empathy towards Star, “Look, I know this stuff is important to you, but you can’t experiment on our customers, okay?”

Star gave another apologetic nod.

Marco continued, “So. Next time.” He took a deep breath and looked off into the clear blue sky, “Next time, let me try it first, okay?”

Star gave him an incredulous look, “_What_?”

“What? I’m the supervisor here. Quality control is part of the job. So obviously I should test new menu items before they go out.”

A cautious joy spread over Star’s face. She asked, a bit unsure, “‘Menu items’? I don’t think the Boss would like the idea of a new menu. I’m already in enough trouble with her, you know.”

Marco looked back at the pile of ash outside the store. He was lost in thought for a moment, but when he sorted himself out, he turned back to Star and assured her he would take care of any of the Boss’s complaints. “Anyways, it’s not a _new_ menu, it’s a _secret_ menu.”

Star rubbed her arm uneasily and started to ask, “Why would you…” She really couldn’t figure this guy out. Nice here, cold there, what was his deal? “You don’t have to be so accommodating, you know. I get it. There are rules. I should follow them—”

Marco interrupted her, “You know, I’ve never seen a customer so… _happy_ before. I didn’t even _do_ that and I feel warm inside. This is your whole thing, right? The whole reason you do… _this_. I think I get it. Maybe customers _should_ glow.”

Star was speechless.

So Marco continued, “So. Yeah. Let’s make some happy customers.” Marco paused, then changed his tone to be a little more supervisory, “More subtly, though, okay? No explosives or fire on the secret menu.”

Star shook herself from the shock and dutifully raised her hand in the air to swear, “I’ll do my best.”

Marco smiled and sighed, “I guess that’s all I can ask for. Thank you. I’m gonna go get ready. Can you clean up the mess on the sidewalk before it attracts too much attention? And while you’re out there, you can put up the specials sign.”

“What’s the special?”

Marco shrugged, “I’ll leave that to the expert.”

Star beamed and gave Marco a little salute, then she ran inside to grab the broom and dustpan.

While Star was sweeping up outside and trying to think of a good Marco-friendly special drink, Janna snuck up behind her, already changed out of her uniform.

“Hey, listen, if you _do_ happen to put some explosive stuff on the menu, let me know. Marco having a total meltdown while the store burns down? _That’s_ my kind of fun.”

“You really do want to watch the world burn, huh?”

Janna kicked a hunk of charcoal into the dustpan, “If the world wasn’t supposed to be on fire, it wouldn’t be so flammable. Anyways, I’m out. Keep me posted on the whole camping situation. ~I’m in your phone~.”

Sure enough, when Star finished tidying up the sidewalk, she checked her messages to find that she already had one from Janna – and when she went to save Janna’s number, there was somehow already a contact card with a photo of Janna winking and shooting finger guns at the camera.

She seemed to be asking about the camping trip?

| **Janna** |   
---|---|---  
| _⛺👻?  
  
_ |   
| _⛺🔥🌽?  
  
_ |   
| _😕🤔  
  
_ |   
| _🔥🐟?  
  
_ |   
| _😴  
  
_ |   
|  _…__🔥🌎?  
  
_ |   
| _Now we’re talking_ |   
| _Let me know how the Jackie thing goes  
  
_ |   
| _kk_ |   
| _thanks for the tip_ |   
  
How Janna got Star’s number was probably going to remain a mystery. Star got the sense that Janna wasn’t super into _boundaries_, and decided it would probably be a good idea to hide her own diary a little better when she got home tonight. Maybe in a vent somewhere, or like… in a sealed crate. At the bottom of the ocean.

While pondering good hiding places for her secrets, Star crouched down in front of the folding chalkboard sign, erased the usual boring cliché catchphrase that was supposed to bring customers in, and wrote in her first ever daily special – one that, for today, she figured should probably not be magical in any way – “_The Burning Heart_ (Spiced Cappuccino)*”. Underneath the name, she drew a cartoonish winged cappuccino with fire behind it for emphasis. And underneath that, she wrote, “*_Absolutely will not set you on fire or give you magical wings. Sorry_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This day has more to tell, but that feels like an okay spot to cut it. I normally don't like splitting up my chapters midway through a continuous block of time, but I also tend to write 10k+ word chapters, so I'm trying something new to cut down - to improve your _user experience_, dear reader.
> 
> Anyways, next chapter: same day! Groundbreaking.
> 
> \- [AR](https://aphantaray.tumblr.com)


	5. Like Me

Star spent most of the afternoon with the Pamphlet unfurled on the back counter, practicing some of her recipes on the espresso machine with Marco’s blessing. He said it was fine so long as she paid for any wasted materials, which seemed fair. Star was working on one kind of spell in particular today – anything that might help her persuade someone to hang out with a total stranger in the woods. It sounded pretty creepy when she put it like that, which is why she figured it probably wouldn’t be super easy to pull off, but she was pretty sure she could find a spell that would boost her… somewhat lacking natural charms enough to get Jackie on board.

There were three candidate spells.

The easy one was applied to the… uh… victim? Target. Let’s stick with target. The old classic: _Spider’s Brew_. It was something like a love potion but a little less severe. Problems: tastes awful, and side effects include hair growth, limb growth, and eye growth. Basically, it turned the vic… target into a gross fly hybrid for a while. Star marked that one down as a last resort.

The next easiest one was the _Silver Tongue_. Five minutes of the most refined and eloquent speech imaginable – followed by a few hours of incoherent rambling. Problems: kind of sound like a snobby jerk the whole time it’s in effect. No weird transformations though, and all the ingredients were on hand.

The hard spell took some tricky timing, high level techniques, and, in her case, some creative and potentially harmful substitutions in the recipe – but it was definitely the most promising. It granted the user a bit of psychic empathy, an air of confidence, and an aura of approachability. But Star had no idea where she could get her hands on some _sweet innocent baby rabbit fur_ on a Sunday afternoon in Echo Creek.

“Hey Marco, you ever see any bunnies around here?”

“Nope. Why?”

“Need some bunny fluff for a recipe.”

“Is it… are you putting it _in_ the drink?”

“Doy, Marco, that’s how recipes work. Ingredients go in, magic coffee comes out.”

“I don’t think that’s up to food safety standards…”

“I’m obviously going to wash it first, Marco.” Star sighed, “Oh whatever, it doesn’t matter. Not like I could catch one even if it was right in front of me.”

“Sorry dude. What’s the recipe for?”

“Charm spell.”

“Oh like, a love potion or something?”

“Uh. More like a _be charming_ spell.”

Marco’s eyes opened wide when he heard that, “Wait so, like, drink the magic coffee, be less awkward?”

Star nodded, “It’s temporary, but yeah, you’d be pretty good at talking to people for a while. Says in the Pamphlet that you could sense other people’s feelings too. Pretty neat if it works.”

“Is it for you?”

“That’s the plan.”

Marco raised an eyebrow, “Why? You’re already super charming.”

“Ha. Yeah right. You’d think if I was so charming, I’d have made a few friends around here by now.”

Marco missed the hint. His gears were turning. “Bunny fluff… bunny fluff…”

Star quickly added, “Has to be from a baby bunny. Or, I dunno, sometimes you can swap out ingredients, but I’m not sure what would fit in here.”

“Uh, maybe like… something cute and harmless?”

Star shrugged, “You can’t try to use logic on these things or you’ll lose your mind. Happened to one of my grannies. She wasted years of her life trying to figure out why newt guts were essential to some nauseatingly bad-tasting drink. Turned out: no reason! You just gotta lean into the madness, you know? Play around until it works.”

“And how do you figure out if it works?”

Star mimed plugging her nose and chugging a drink.

Marco looked dumbfounded, “Are you serious? What if it’s all wrong? Or super poisonous?”

“Oh, we’ve got a few quick fixes for little screwups, but for bigger problems—” Star folded up the Pamphlet and showed the back cover to Marco, “—The first recipe in the Pamphlet is a spell stopper. It kind of fizzles everything out and uh… destroys the Wand.”

Marco studied the page intently. Was he trying to memorize it? When he was satisfied, he handed it back to Star, “Kind of overkill, isn’t it?”

Star shrugged, “Yeah, well, that’s how it is. _We can always make a new Wand, we can’t make a new Star_, is what my mom says. Which is, by the way, totally not true. There are definitely a few cloning recipes in here.”

Marco snapped his fingers, “How about kitten fluff? My neighbor’s cat just had a litter.”

Star put her finger to her chin and thought about it. It might work. Kittens and bunnies are pretty close, right? Definitely equally adorable, though the recipe specifically said ‘innocent’, and cats are notoriously fiendish.

Wait, why was Marco so into this?

Star pointed at Marco with a look of suspicion in her eyes, “What’s your game, Diaz? You’re usually slamming the brakes on this stuff.”

Marco put on a very poor impression of a surprised person, “What? I would never. I love your weird spells.”

Star silently stared him down with a skeptical look on her face. He was up to something here.

“I just…” He sighed and conceded, “It’s this girl. She comes in every week. I’ve known her like forever, but I can barely say more than two words to her every time I see her. My mind just goes racing off into all these hypothetical conversations and I can’t get anything out. But maybe… maybe with a little help from a spell like that… I just want to have a normal conversation with her for once.”

Oh Marco. Why was this guy such a nervous wreck? Star had already seen him taking charge of a bunch of dire situations with practiced ease. She got the feeling he was _always_ super confident with that kind of thing. Why couldn’t he just tap into that all the time? He’s the one who shouldn’t need a charm spell.

Maybe it would be nice to give him a little boost. Star mulled it over. What was the worst thing that could happen? Well. Anything, really. These recipes go wrong in all sorts of ways. But she’d have a reversal spell at the ready. And if he was willing to take a bullet for her to be a tester for the modified recipe, she wasn’t about to complain.

“Alright,” she nodded, “Go get some kitten fur and I’ll start getting everything together for your _Affable Affogato_.”

“What? Now?”

“Yes, now!” Star shooed him out from behind the counter, “She’ll be here soon, right? Get going! I’ll be fine on my own for a bit.”

Marco looked a little uneasy about abandoning his post, but he only hesitated for a moment before he undid his apron and left it on the back counter.

“No spells while I’m gone!” he shouted as he ran out the front door.

Star watched Marco jog out of sight, and then took a moment to appreciate the quiet of the empty café. The truly empty café. No customers. No coworkers. No supervisors. For the first time since she started working there, she was alone in the building. It felt kind of exciting.

She took the opportunity to do just a tiny amount of redecorating – barely noticeable. Just adding some colorful smiles, hearts, and stars on the big menu board to give the place a cheerier vibe. The Boss probably wouldn’t even notice. Ugh, the Boss.

Star put on a mocking deep voice, “Diaz! Shine that espresso machine!” she commanded, pretending to be in charge. “Shinier! I want to see my weird face in there when I kiss it. You! New girl! Make that coffee greyer! Is that real vanilla in your pocket? How dare you! Gross vanilla powder only! Janna! You’re fine. You do you. Whatever. Diaz! You irresponsible fool! Why are you letting your Sunday numbers slip? Unforgivable!”

Star looked around the empty dining room and suddenly felt kind of lonely. Roasting the Boss would be little more satisfying if anyone was there to laugh with her, but all by herself, she felt kind of silly. She dropped the game, then gathered herself up and stood in front of the till like a professional, hoping a customer would show up. But after a few minutes of waiting, she started tapping her fingers on the counter and humming, looking around for something to kill some time with. And uh. You know maybe the espresso machine _could_ be a little shinier, now that she gave it a good look. And the underside of the till probably hadn’t been dusted in ages. And there might be gum stuck under some of the chairs.

By the time Marco came back, Star was balancing on a dining room chair and leaning over precariously while trying to dust a lampshade. She nearly fell over when Marco came in.

“You’re back!” she cheered, hopping down and pushing the chair back in like nothing happened. Because nothing happened. She definitely wasn’t obsessively cleaning every surface she could find out of boredom. Shut up.

“What were you doing up there?” Marco asked.

“Uh. A… customer – that we definitely had – spilled some coffee.”

“On a lamp?”

“Yup. Totally. You know how they are.”

“Uh huh.“ Marco looked around and assessed the state of the room. He grinned to himself with pride, “You know, there’s nothing wrong with wanting to keep the place clean. I won’t tell.”

“Nonono. What are you talking about? I don’t care about that stuff. That’s like… super dorky, and I’m not a dork, Marco. I’m a barista. A _cool_ barista with an attitude or whatever.” Star quickly changed the subject, “Did you get the fur or what?”

Marco dutifully produced a sealed plastic bag full of white fluff from his pocket. “Mission accomplished.”

Star took the bag and examined the fur inside. It was soft. It was innocent looking. She could probably be persuaded that it came from a baby bunny, sure. Could the universe? That was the big question.

“Alright! Good work. Let’s give it a shot.”

She hustled up to the espresso maker, opened up the Pamphlet of Spells to the recipe, and got to work while Marco watched in rapt anticipation.

Star pulled a double shot of espresso from the machine, then set it aside for a moment so she could focus on the hard part of the recipe – the ice cream, which had to be made and then enchanted with the Magic Steam Wand. Carefully following the steps in the recipe, she added a bit of honey and vanilla to a tumbler glass half-filled with milk, then she flipped to another page in the Pamphlet that had instructions on using the Wand’s freezing powers. She’d made a frappe with this trick a few times before, but that didn’t make it any easier. It was definitely a 5-star skill – something she was probably a year or two of practice away from being confident with. She expected it to go wrong a few times before it went right.

“Okay so, stand back a bit,” Star warned Marco, “This doesn’t always work.”

Marco took a cautious step backwards.

Star called the freezing spell by name, “_Breath of the Frostbite Drake_,” and held cold thoughts in her mind while she turned the steam valve. Snowy mountaintops. Ice snakes. Stump Day nights. Brain freezes.

As steam hissed out of the nozzle, the wand started crusting over with frost. She was kind of amazed to see it working. And on the first try? Maybe she _was_ making progress.

Then the nozzle sputtered and exploded with a blast of cold air that covered every surface in a few yards with a thin crust of clear ice – including Star’s arms, clothes, and face.

Marco rushed over to help, but Star put her hand up. “It’s fine. I’m fine.” She cracked and peeled the ice off her body like the shell of a hardboiled egg, letting the pieces fall to the floor.

She tried again. Maybe some slightly less cold thoughts this time? Bathroom floors in the morning. The bottom of a lake. That look her mom gave her.

Again the wand turned frosty. Star let it vent frosty air for a few seconds, covering her face in case it exploded again, but this time it was behaving nicely.

“Nice. I think I got it.”

“And what you’ve got is… a steam wand that makes _ice_? I feel like my chemistry profs would have some strong words for you.”

Star shushed him so she could focus. She dipped the wand into the glass of milk and honey and swirled it around, then after a few seconds she turned off the steam and pulled the glass away, revealing a perfect sphere of frosty, glistening vanilla ice cream in the center. She then poured the double shot of espresso over it and topped it off with a sprinkle of the downy kitten fur. Leaning in, she whispered the incantation that shaped the spell:

_You might like freezing cool, you might like boiling hot  
Sweet, confident, and lovable, you might like me a lot_

And with those words, the white fur crystalized into thin threads of golden sugar. Veins of light covered the ice cream’s surface, and the whole drink took on a pale blue aura.

Finally, she whispered the spell’s name to seal it all together, “_Affable Affogato_,” and the glow subsided, leaving the drink looking like a normal – but stunning – cup of espresso-drenched ice cream.

Star compared it to the picture in the Pamphlet. It looked about right. Smelled fine. No weird smoke or colors. Huge success! Probably.

Star handed the glass and a spoon over to Marco, “There you go! Let me know how it tastes.”

Marco tentatively compressed the tuft of transformed fluff under the spoon to confirm that it was edible. “So it’s not fur anymore, right? I’m not going to be coughing up hairballs later?”

Star shrugged, “Not gonna lie, we’re at the cutting edge here, Marco. Anything could happen. Hairballs. Tentacles. Spacetime anomalies. Social skill buffs. Who knows? Try it!”

Marco slowly prodded the ice cream with the spoon a few times without making any indication he was planning to dig in.

Yeah. Star figured it would end up like this. Marco was going to need a little push, so Star clapped him on the shoulder and told him to take his time while she went out into the dining area to wipe down some tables near the window.

Then she put on a big show for him, “Oh no, Marco!”

“What?”

“It’s Jackie!”

“What!? Already?”

“Yeah! It’s definitely her!” Star lied, “Drink it now! There’s no time!”

With a panicked look, Marco’s eyes darted between Star, the front door, and the affogato. He looked like he really didn’t want to do it, but his resistance eventually gave way to Star’s insistence and he went for it. He managed to get all the ice cream down in two huge spoonfuls, then he tipped his head back and emptied the cup in one big swig.

Star smiled mischievously, “Oh wait no, that’s just a regular skater kid. False alarm!”

Marco coughed and sputtered, then whimpered, “Star… why…”

“Well, how is it?” Star ran back to Marco and examined him for any oddities. No new appendages, no strange hair growth, no partial transformations. He looked fine! Extra fine, actually. Kind of… radiant? And soft? Star caught her hand as it was reflexively reaching out to touch Marco’s startlingly luxurious hair.

“It’s not as sweet as it looks,” Marco’s voice came out warm and confident – a sharp contrast from his usual cracking, anxiety-laden timbre, “But it was very nice, thank you. You’re pretty talented, you know.”

“Uh,” She suddenly found herself stumbling with her words for some reason. “Th—thanks? No problem, I mean. Well, there was that little problem, with the explosion, and not having the ingredients, but you fixed that, so, yeah, thanks. Again. For that. Real nice of you. Though I guess you wanted the drink for yourself too so maybe it wasn’t for me. Yeah. It probably wasn’t for—” Star trailed off when she noticed Marco wasn’t paying attention anymore.

He looked concerned about his throat. He touched his neck gingerly with the tips of his fingers, “My throat feels really strange, like it’s floating. And my chest feels like… flowers in the sun and a cool breeze. Does that make sense?”

Star double-checked the recipe to see if that was normal, but as usual the Pamphlet just said the drink would be ‘delicious’ and ‘highly effective’ rather than giving any useful information about how the user should feel, so she had to assume that all was well.

And it seemed to be working, because Marco definitely looked and sounded more charming. Kind of cute, actually.

Wait.

No no no. No more thoughts like that. It was right there on the page: _mild empathic sensory perception_. Marco might feel that stuff if he was paying attention.

Star quickly averted her gaze and tried to think about something else. She had definitely not thought this through properly. Getting magicked into putting out big loud crush vibes on Marco was like, the absolute _last_ thing she wanted right now. She needed some dang Earth friends already, not a weird magic-induced crush. Star would never convince him to hang out if he thought Star was being unprofessional or whatever.

She noticed that Marco was waiting for something from her. A response? Did he ask a question? What did he ask again? Something about feeling weird?

“Hey,” Marco tapped her shoulder to get her attention, voice still cool and confident, “I’m not going to burst into flames here, am I?” he asked playfully.

Star jumped away and shook her head emphatically, “Nope! No you’re fine. Sorry. Uh. It’s working, I think. You’re—definitely—more charming now.” Like, too much. Too too much.

Marco looked down at himself, “Am I? How?”

“Uh—”

Don’t make me talk about this, dude.

“—Like, you sound smooth, and your uh… your hair looks nice? And some other things. It’s a pretty strong effect.” Star kept herself from looking at Marco with strict vigilance, but even the sound of his voice was remarkably soothing. Just the spell. It was just the spell. “So uh, hey, I’m gonna go clean the dining room? You just stay here. Behind the counter. And… try not to talk to me until this thing wears off, okay?”

Marco furrowed his brows and took a moment to focus on Star before his eyes opened wide with realization. He nodded thoughtfully as he responded, “Right. Right, of course. You’ve never done this before. It’s too intense… Feels weird… Trying to be polite…” He gave Star a dutiful salute, “Got it. I’ll give you some space.”

Yeah Marco was definitely tapping into that psychic stuff now. Dangerous. Bring back anxious, oblivious, overly cautious Marco please.

But the guy wanted this. Maybe it really would help him get over his anxiety and talk to Jackie. If it got too weird, Star could probably just undo this with a little remedy shot, but she figured she could endure it for now. It’d be nice to pay Marco back a little bit for all the nice things he’d done for her since she started working at Buck’s. It’d be fine being a little awkward around him for a bit. Right?

Star took her time in the lobby getting every speck of dust off of every surface and polishing anything chrome to a mirror finish for the second time that day. While she was doing her best to stay distracted, she noticed a group of people slowly come to a halt in front of the store. All of them were staring at Marco through the glass storefront. After pointing and sharing a few words and smiles, they decided to come in. Star decided to sit down and carefully observe the interaction from a distance.

The group approached the counter and started asking Marco questions about the café.

“Hey cutey, this is our first time in here. What do you sell?”

Marco didn’t skip a beat when he replied, “The finest espresso in town for customers with the finest taste.”

“Well I don’t know anything about espresso, but there’s definitely _something_ fine in here.”

Marco gave the group a warm smile, “Well you must have fine taste to recognize it. What are you in the mood for?”

“Oh I dunno, how about something… tall and dark.”

Star was turning red just listening to this. Was Marco oblivious or was he just playing it, like, _way_ cooler than usual? Star figured he’d normally be freaking out about a customer being so flirtatious. That spell really did a number on the guy.

Marco prepared an order for the group, expertly dodging every cloying comment they threw at him. Most of the group sat at a table to chat and smile, frequently glancing over at the counter. Star could hear bits and pieces about how handsome and charming the barista was. One of the guys in the group stayed behind at the counter to keep chatting Marco up, asking about his studies, what he did for fun, that sort of thing. Marco tried to be polite about having work to do, but the customer was very persistent.

Meanwhile, more customers were being pulled into the shop by Marco’s artificially inflated charisma. The bell over the door wouldn’t stop ringing and a winding line quickly formed. Marco had his hands full taking orders and dealing with overly chatty customers. Star was worried she’d be—

“Star! Little help!”

Cool. Cool cool. Star took a deep breath. She could handle this. Just focus on the work and think boring coffee thoughts.

Marco was soft but commanding as he relayed the orders to Star, “I need three specials (you’re so popular). Two lattes. One cappuccino – soy milk there (it’s in the walk-in in the back). And put a couple _caprese_ sandwiches on the press. You’re a hero.”

Star nodded and got to work, calling out orders to the lobby as they were ready, and dealing as professionally as possible with customers asking for Marco’s name and phone number.

More than a few times, a customer leaned in while collecting their order to whisper to Star, “He’s really cute. You’re so lucky.”

“Yup!” Star replied in her best customer service voice, “Super lucky! Have a great day!”

This was actually getting to be too much. Star spotted Jackie in line and let out a sigh of relief. The end of this ordeal was in sight. In between orders, Star started prepping the remedy shot. She’d give it to Marco as soon as Jackie placed her order so this could be over as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile, Star noticed that Marco was… uh… not acting quite right. Instead of maintaining his usual steadfast professional deference, it seemed that his professionalism was starting to erode with every adoring customer. He was starting to respond more and more to their attention. A wink here, a flirty comment there. And something was changing about his appearance. Subtle. He was still absolutely gorgeous, but… something in his eyes and his smile was starting to look a little… predatory.

“Hey ladies, hold on, let me guess. Something sweet. Something sensuous. Something… irresistible.”

“Oh yes please,” his customers were fawning over him hard.

Oh boy.

“Sorry to say _I’m_ off the menu, but how about a round of mocha lattes? I know it’s not what brought you in here, but I promise they’ll keep you coming back.”

The girls looked at each other and giggled, “Oh I’m sure we can find another reason to come back.”

Marco gave them a little wink while he entered in their order, then called it out for Star, “Three mochas for these lovely ladies.”

“Okay! Being a little weird there Marco! Dial it back a bit!”

“Star, please, let me work my magic here. They’re loving it. And don’t pretend you’re not enjoying the show. Have some fun with it.”

Star felt her mind being tugged a little by his charms, and that was not sitting well with her. “Just… just dial it back, please.”

Marco shrugged and smiled disarmingly, “As you wish.”

When Jackie got to the front of the line, she was as friendly and casual with Marco as ever, “Hey. Busy in here today. You guys got some kind of event going on?”

“You could say you’re looking at the main attraction.”

Marco had lost all semblance of himself now. He didn’t even flinch when Jackie spoke to him. Did he even realize who he was talking to?

Star had the remedy shot at the ready.

Jackie let out a smiling scoff at Marco’s flaunting, “What’s up with you, dude? You practicing for a play or something?”

Marco’s confident look cracked for a moment, but he quickly recovered, “Just the role of leading man on the stage of life, beautiful.”

Jackie’s smile turned into a look of concern, “Uh, Marco are you feeling okay?”

Star jumped in frantically, “He’s fine! Fever! Food poisoning! Why is he even here? What dedication, right? Ha ha, excuse us for a moment.”

Star dragged Marco into the back room by the sleeve and gathered together every ounce of will in her head to chew him out, “Marco what are you doing? You’re being really gross.”

Marco scoffed, “A whole café full of people would disagree with you. This drink is amazing, Star. You’ve really outdone yourself. But Jackie’s not getting it for some reason.” He leaned in and whispered, “I think it might be wearing off.”

It was not. At least judging from how that whisper sent shivers up and down Star’s spine.

“It’s definitely wearing _thin_,” she muttered to herself.

“Can you top me up or something?”

“Top you up?” Star realized this was her chance, “Uh, yeah. Yeah just… wait there one second.”

She went up front, smiled and apologized to Jackie for the wait (“No worries,” Jackie replied.), then returned to Marco with the shot that would bring an end to this madness.

“Here you go! One top up. Get you right back to your best.”

Marco thanked Star, brought the cup to his lips, then hesitated. No, not hesitated. He refused. And… poured the shot out on the ground.

“What are you doing!?”

Marco sounded like he was searching for something when he asked, “What are you playing at, Star?”

“Wh—what do you mean?” Was he digging at her thoughts? Oh man. Uh. Rocks. Just rocks. Grey rocks—

“There. It’s right there. I can _feel_ your deceit. What was that thing? The _cure_? I’m not sick. This is great for me. I never want to go back. Why would you try to sabotage me like that? I thought you were my friend, Star.”

…Did he think that? That was all she wanted, wasn’t it? Was she ruining it? Maybe she was being unreasonable. Maybe he was fine. She didn’t want to jeopardize their friendship before it started. Maybe she could just… make him another affogato…

No! No. “Stop! Stop it. I’m not… This has gone too far, Marco. You need to stop.”

“When I’m so close? Not happening. I finally have her, I finally have the confidence I need to win her over. You can’t take that away from me. Not now.”

“I should never have done this to you… This isn’t you. This isn’t how you are. Even if she… It doesn’t mean anything if she likes you like this!”

Marco was taken aback, and hesitated for a moment. Something was bothering him. “Are you trying to resist me too? What’s wrong with you two?”

He must have gotten so used to it, to being in control of everyone around him all day. But Star wasn’t about to give in to this stupid nonsense.

“I’m not letting you ruin your relationship with this girl, Marco. She’s obviously not digging this weird vibe of yours. Just let me fix this this and you can go back to normal.”

“No. I’m not going back. You’re going to keep making these for me and I’m going to be irresistible forever.”

Star frowned, “I can’t believe you’re making me do this, dude.” She stomped over to her bag, grumbling the whole way, then came back with a little bottle clenched tightly in her fist.

“I’m not taking your cure!”

“Oh, this isn’t the cure. Whether you like it or not, I’m not letting you go back out there like this. I’m giving you one last chance to chill out. Let me fix this right now, or I’ll stop you myself.”

Marco took up a defensive _karate_ stance, “Are you threatening me?”

Star got a sad look in her eyes. This isn’t what she wanted at all. She was just trying to help. And now…

She smashed the bottle on the ground at Marco’s feet. It exploded with a pop, filling the air around Marco with purple smoke. He barely had time to ask what was going on before he fell unconscious, crumpling to the ground. Star held her breath and dove forward into the smoke to catch him before he hit his head on the ground. Then she dragged him into the office and barred the door shut.

“Sorry Marco. It’s for your own good.”

When she got back to the front, Star couldn’t believe that Jackie was still waiting there.

She manned the till with a quick apology for the wait, “Uh. _Jackie_, right?”

Jackie smiled at Star, “They’re hiring psychics now?”

“Oh no, no, Marco uh… he told me to say sorry. He’s not himself right now.”

“Yeah, is he okay?”

Star glanced over her shoulder at the door to the back room, “He’ll be fine. Anyways, thanks for waiting. What can I get you?”

Star noticed the dining room had mostly cleared out now. Without Marco’s charms, it seemed like everyone was getting their senses back and returning to whatever business they were up to before they got pulled in there.

Jackie pointed her thumb over her shoulder at the sign out front, “Gotta try the special. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you guys change your menu.”

Star put her finger to her lips, “That’s a top secret menu item. Sundays only. Don’t tell anyone.”

Jackie shaped her mouth into a silent ‘oh’, then mimed closing a zipper over her lips.

While Star was making Jackie a _Burning Heart_, she tried to make polite conversation. The whole plan for today was kind of ruined. After seeing how Marco got while he was under the effects of the modified _Affable Affogato_, she definitely didn’t really want to try it herself. And without it, she probably wouldn’t have much luck convincing Jackie to go on a camping trip with her. She was a complete stranger, after all.

“So… you come in here a lot?” Star asked.

“Oh no, not really, just on Sunday.”

“Why Sunday?”

Jackie smiled, “Keep a secret?”

Star winked, “If you keep mine.”

“It’s just nice to visit an old friend, you know?”

“Oh, Marco? You guys are friends?” Did… did _Marco_ know that?

“Yeah, we went to school together. I’ve known the guy since grade school. He was always pretty awkward, but he’s such a sweetheart. It was a bummer when he left. This is the only time I get to see him anymore. Actually, he’s basically the only person from high school I ever get to talk to. You know how it is. No one has time to hang out when real life starts hitting you.”

“Huh.”

Star’s gears got turning.

As she handed Jackie the cup, she asked in a disarming tone, “Hey do you happen to like camping at all?”

“Oh yeah, love it. Why?”

“Marco… uh… he said he’s looking for people to join him on a camping trip for spring break. I think he was hoping to ask you about it today, but, you know, the whole food poisoning crazy brain kind of ruined that.”

“Oh sweet, really? That’d be rad. Tell him I’m down.”

Star was dumbfounded, but she managed to confirm, “Really?”

Did that actually work? No magic spells? No tricks?

“For sure. Man, I haven’t had a chance to get out in the woods for years. Who else is going?”

“Oh. Uh. Janna? You know Janna?”

“Sounds familiar. Is she the weird girl who’s here in the morning? I think we went to school together too.”

“Yeah. She’s pretty cool. I’m going too.” She hoped.

“Oh cool. You’re new here, right?”

“Yeah, just moved here last month.”

Jackie inspected Star’s nametag. “Star. Sweet name. Welcome to Echo Creek.”

“Oh, thanks! So. Uh. I’ll just let Marco know you’re coming? When he’s feeling better.”

“Yeah. Tell him to get better soon. Food poisoning sucks.”

Star smiled. “Will do.” This girl was pretty cool. She got why Marco was into her.

Jackie gave Star a little wave, “See you around, Star!” Then she put on her helmet and left the shop to skate off down the street, leaving Star alone in the café to try to figure out how exactly she was going to deal with Marco. Probably best to just let him sleep it off in the office. The effect of the spell would fade in an hour or two. Then she could go and… have a very awkward conversation with him.

After an otherwise uneventful shift (Star managed to sell a few more specials, though, which was a nice morale boost), Star flipped the open sign around, locked the front door, and wiped down all the tables. Again. Mmm… Maybe just once more? They weren’t nearly as shiny as they could be.

No, it was time to deal with this thing. She went to the break room, threw her apron in the laundry bag, then sheepishly knocked at the barred office door.

“Hey. You normal yet?”

There was no response, but he couldn’t still be unconscious. She knocked again.

“Marco?”

After a few moments of silence, Star heard a muffled and grumpy, “What?” from the other side of the door.

“I came to let you out if you’re done being weird.”

“Okay.”

Star paused for a moment waiting for him to continue, but he didn’t.

“So. Uh. Are you done being weird?”

No response.

“Okay well I’m opening the door. So. Be normal, okay?”

Star unbarred the door and turned the handle to let it swing open.

Marco took his time, but eventually he came out, head hanging low with shame.

“Hey buddy. You okay?”

He refused to make eye contact with Star, so she ducked down and put her face right in his line of sight.

Marco turned away, “Don’t.”

Star backed off. Marco was looking pretty shook up.

The two of them stood a few feet apart in a tense silence. Star wanted to say something, but she didn’t really know how to start.

Luckily, Marco broke the silence, “That was… I’m really sorry. I can’t believe I was like that. The way I talked to you… was… not okay.”

Star gave him a little punch in the shoulder, “Hey it’s cool. I mean, it wasn’t cool. It was super gross. But I definitely have to take some of the blame for that situation. I shouldn’t have given you that drink in the first place.”

Marco was quiet for a few seconds before he replied, “I always wanted to know what it was like, to be cool and confident and popular. I asked for it, and I got it, and I ended up being a real piece of garbage.”

“Hey, come on, you didn’t know how bad it was gonna be. And no one got hurt. How about we just agree to never do that again, okay?”

Marco nodded. But he clearly wasn’t feeling better about it. He sat down at the break room’s table and put he head in his hands. He clearly needed a moment, so Star went to get changed.

When she got back, Marco seemed to have pulled himself back together a bit.

“Thanks,” he said, “For stopping me.”

“It’s all good. Make a mess, clean it up, right?”

Marco shook his head, “You saved me from doing something really bad to Jackie. You’re a good friend.”

“Oh you don’t even _know_, dude.” Star gave him a big smile, “Your car’s gonna be a little more crowded on that camping trip. Jackie’s going with you.”

“What!?”

Star put on an assertive tone, “And me. And Janna.”

Marco got halfway through a ‘no’ before he caught himself and sighed, “Why Janna?”

Star shrugged, “She’s bored I guess?”

“You two had this planned out, huh?” He shook his head in disbelief, “That’s why you wanted the charm spell? To convince me?”

Star nodded, with more than a little shame, “Yeah, basically. Sorry.”

Marco crossed his arms and thought about it for a moment.

“Alright, fine. You can come. I guess I owe you for today.”

“You do. You were horrible. And I saved your butt.”

“You really got Jackie to come?”

“Yeah! I could hardly believe it myself. She was really cool about it, actually. And,” Star put a finger to her lips, “Don’t tell her I told you this, but I think she really likes the usual super awkward Marco.”

Marco got a little flustered, “She told you that?”

“More or less.” Star jokingly chided him, “Some people have no taste, huh?”

Marco gave Star a playful smile, “Yeah, like everyone who was ordering your weird special today, right?”

“Hey, shut up, that drink was amazing. Even your _girlfriend_ got one.”

“She’s not… Don’t be weird.” Marco was blushing a bit. He really was just super awkward. And it really was just super endearing.

Star said her goodbyes to Marco and headed home. While she was walking, something Marco said lingered in her mind.

_You’re a good friend._

He really said it, didn’t he? Did he really mean it? Star let herself get her hopes up that she’d made some progress today, and found herself very much looking forward to that trip.

Now all she had to do was book the week off with the Boss. How hard could that be?


	6. Shifted

Tuesday morning. A couple hours after Star got the food prepped for the day and the shop opened up, the second morning employee came in to give Star a little coffee break. Oskar. He was pretty nice. Kind of a lone wolf. Played music or something? Cute hair.

He greeted her with a thank you, which Star found kind of weird.

“Uh no problem. What’d I do again?”

“Taking my shift next week, my dude. Most generous of you. It was the only day the guys could get together for a jam sesh before the festival.”

“Uh… huh. Which… which day was that again?”

Oskar told her it was next Tuesday, which was… odd, considering they normally worked _together_ on Tuesdays, so how Star was supposed to ‘cover’ his shift was a mystery.

But wait what was he even talking about? She never agreed to that. She was trying to get that whole week _off_.

Star went to the back room to check the schedule. Maybe there was a note somewhere about it. She also checked her phone on the way to see if she’d missed any calls about it or something, and she was surprised to find her notifications full of thank you messages from numbers she’d never seen before.

**Unknown**

_Hey thx for covering for me next week_

**Unknown**

_rly cool of you tysm ur the bst_

**Unknown**

_I’ll get you back dude, thanks. Means a lot to me. Haven’t visited my family in ages._

When she got to the schedule, she found that the next week was absolutely covered in her name, hand-written in a dozen different styles.

“What the heck…” Star muttered to herself. Why was this happening?

She pored over the schedule, and sure enough there wasn’t a single shift next week that she _wasn’t_ covering.

“No… no no no, what happened? I didn’t agree to any of this!”

If she didn’t get this fixed, there was no way she’d be able to go on that camping trip.

She returned to the front counter planning to plead with Oskar to trade the shift back, but every time she worked up the courage to bring it up, another customer walked in. And eventually, after a couple hours of being interrupted and rethinking it, she decided that whatever had happened, whoever had done this to her, it wouldn’t be fair to make Oskar cancel his jam time just so she could go camping.

And probably all those coworkers sending thankful messages were spending time with their family or going on cool vacations or whatever.

She looked up her coworkers’ contact info and sent a message to the few people on the schedule who _hadn’t_ sent her any kind of thanks. She asked if there was any way they could trade back – even just one shift. She figured she could be content with just _one_ day out in the woods with Marco and Janna.

But no one wanted to switch back. She was stuck.

Star spent her lunch break pacing back and forth in the back room trying to figure a way out of this. But there wasn’t one, was there? There’s no way she could be in two places at the same time.

She sunk down into the depths of frustration and then decided she would just have to let it go. It sucked, but that was just the way it was. At least Marco would have fun hanging out with Jackie. And Janna would have fun tormenting Marco. Star tried to be happy for them, but she still felt pretty miserable about it.

The shift continued. Business as usual. She tried to keep a cheerful face on for the customers despite her bad mood, but it felt pretty insincere today. She could barely work up the energy to draw a simple petal pattern in her cappuccinos. The intricate and whimsical designs she normally decorated them with were just out of the question today. A few customers looked a little disappointed and asked if Star was okay, and she could only reply that everything was fine, just some stuff on her mind.

Oskar was on break and Star was zoning out wondering if Marco would even be bothered by her having to bail when a loud crash came from the back room and fully derailed her train of thought. Did Oskar break something? It sounded like a whole shelf fell over.

She apologized to the customer she realized she’d been spacing out in front of and rushed into the back to see what was going on.

It was kind of a situation. Oskar stood in the corner, staring in awe at the scene. An interdimensional portal hummed and swirled near the back door. It wavered for a moment before it fizzled closed. And, just as Star thought, one of the stock shelves was fully knocked over, all of its contents spilled on the floor, packages broken open, beans and sugar everywhere. And from underneath a pile of sacks of coffee beans, Star could hear a groan that sounded… sort of familiar?

“Ugh… who put all this junk here…” the voice whined.

Star heaved a few bags off of the pile, and underneath them she found – bruised and battered – the disembodied floating unicorn head that belonged to her best friend.

“Ponyhead!? What… why are you here? Are you okay?”

“Oh, hey gurl,” Ponyhead groaned, “How you doin’?”

“Yeah I’m great what’s going on?”

Oskar was handling the situation with a remarkably cool head, “Whoa dude, this is killer song material,” he muttered to himself while pulling a notebook and pen out of his pocket to start writing something down with intense focus.

Star pleaded with him, “Oskar can you go back up front, buddy? There’s a—”

“One sec dude, gotta capture this while the spark is fresh.”

Star sighed. _Artists_.

Ponyhead recovered her senses a bit and managed to get herself hovering back in the air.

“Gurl! I can’t stand it anymore. I’m breaking out! You gotta hide me, okay?”

Star raised an eyebrow, but she agreed and found her friend a mostly-empty box of paper cups to hide in.

Ponyhead complained a bit about the accommodations, “Well okay so I thought maybe you’d have something a little more uh… chic and spacious and comfortable, but yeah, fine, okay.”

Star folded the top of the box shut to seal Ponyhead inside and said, “Sorry, that’s the best I got. So, you gonna tell me what’s going on or—”

“I told you, I’m sick of it! I can’t deal with all this _business_ business, Star! Payroll? Cost estimates? _Fiscal responsibility_? Whatever! I have so many sisters! Let one of them do this! There’s no way they need me to run their stupid ice cream shop. I don’t even like ice cream!”

Ah. Yeah. Star figured this might be related to the business school. This wasn’t the first time Ponyhead had tried to bail on it. Apparently Star wasn’t the only one who wasn’t super pumped about taking over their family’s business.

But St. Olga’s Business School was basically a prison. Star’s mom had sent Star there for a few courses a few years back as sort of a punishment for wasting a bunch of the Butterfly Café’s profits on random stuff from that cool shopping dimension. Star still had nightmares about her time in the dorm. The awful food. The lumpy beds. The isolation. The weird chanting about the economics of scale. It was all very culty and demoralizing. Star had tried to escape too, but the task force the school sent out to capture her was _relentless_. There was no way hiding in a box was going to help Ponyhead. Star put her hands together and bowed her head in a silent apology that she couldn’t do anything more.

Star patted the box consolingly, “I’m sure you’ll be fine in there,” she lied, “You uh… you mind if I leave you alone back here for a bit?” Star glanced over at Oskar, still busy writing in his notebook, and who – to be fair – was still on his break. “I’m kind of in the middle of my shift, still got a bunch of work to do—”

“Work!?” Ponyhead popped her head right out of the box, practically screaming, “Now _work_ is more important than hanging out with your bestie – who, by the way, is in grave danger and also who you haven’t seen in for_ever_! How come you never visit, huh? Too good for your friends now? What have they done to you, gurl? Is this place turning you into a snobby work nerd?”

“No! I can’t visit _anyone_! My mom won’t let me use our Dimensional Teaspoon, so I’m totally stuck on Earth. It sucks. I miss you. Get a phone already so we can chat.”

“Yeah I wish. You know there’s no phones allowed at the academy.”

Star recited in a monotonous drone, “No distractions. Only profit.”

“Only profit,” Ponyhead echoed, then the two of them cracked up at the ridiculousness of it.

“Yeah I’m with you, girl,” Star commiserated with Ponyhead, “Who cares about all that stuff? I hope you get away with it. How’d you even get out?”

Ponyhead cackled, then fished an attractive teaspoon out of wherever she stored things in her mouth. It had a red, zigzagging handle with a large diamond inset near the top. A Dimensional Teaspoon.

Star was bewildered, “How did you… wait that doesn’t look like your family’s—”

Ponyhead returned the Spoon to wherever she was storing it in that head of hers and told Star not to ask so many questions. “If I get out of this, let’s go on a little vay-cay gurl, get some clubbing in.”

That did sound nice, but Star wasn’t going to bet on Ponyhead’s escape plan working out.

“If you have a Spoon,” Star said, “Why did you come _here_? Go hide somewhere better.”

“Nah gurl, they’ll never think to look for me here. This is basically the least fun dimension in the multiverse, and everyone knows how much I love fun.”

Star wasn’t sure that logic tracked, but she decided it was better not to push it. She really did have to get back to work if she didn’t want to get chewed out.

Star shoved Ponyhead back into the box, “Okay well stay in there and stay quiet and I’m sure you’ll be fine. I’ll be back later.”

“Yeah okay work nerd. Have fun. Being a huge nerd.”

When Star got back to the front, she found the customer she’d abandoned still waiting there, looking pretty grumpy.

“Hey sorry about that. Little disaster back there. This one’s half-off for the wait.”

After Star rushed through making the drink and handed it to the customer, she was startled by the sound of an ominous voice behind her.

“Making your customers wait, Miss Butterfly?”

The Boss. How did she get behind Star like that? This woman was way too spooky and intimidating. Marco wasn’t kidding about never knowing when you were being watched.

“No!” Star replied, “Well, okay yes, but for a good reason! There was a—”

The Boss cut Star off, “You’ll be paying for that half a coffee, yes?”

“Totally, totally, yeah,” Star replied nervously, “Can’t just go around giving people free coffee, right? Ha ha. Totally my bad.” Star dug out some change from her wallet and put it in the till. “See? All good, right?”

“Right,” the Boss dryly replied.

Star noticed the Boss was looking a little rough today. Like way more pale than usual, and kind of shaky and sickly and thin. Her normally well-kept curly lavender hair had become frazzled and white, and she was still wearing a pair of dark sunglasses even in the subdued lighting of the shop.

“Hey, uh, you doing alright?” Star asked.

“No,” the Boss replied plainly. The she made her way to the espresso machine and started fiddling with the knobs, putting the machine’s settings all wrong, “I just got here and I haven’t had my coffee. And I made it very clear when you started, Miss Butterfly: don’t talk to me until I’ve had my coffee.”

“Uh… wait,” Star was reluctant to point it out, but pulling an espresso shot with those settings was definitely a bad idea, “I don’t think the machine’s supposed to—”

Again the Boss cut Star off, “Not. Until. I’ve had. My coffee.”

What came out of the misconfigured machine looked pretty nasty, like a thick sludge, and the Boss filled a mug up to the brim with the stuff before she put all the machine’s settings back to normal.

Then without a word, the old woman shuffled into the back room. Or, she tried to, but Star stood in the doorway to block her exit.

“Miss Butterfly, you are trying my patience today.”

“Okay look, I just uh… I think maybe… Listen we never get to chat! Why don’t you hang out up here? And don’t… don’t look in the back room. At all. Today.”

The Boss pushed past Star into the back room. She took one look at the state of the room, hung her head, then silently proceeded into the office and shut the door.

Star was not expecting that reaction. The Boss really wasn’t alright, huh? Or maybe she just needed to get some coffee in her before she had the energy to tear Star apart properly. Star was about to head back up front when she noticed that the box Ponyhead was hiding in was missing.

“Aw man, the goons got her already?” Star mumbled to herself, sad but not surprised, “Poor girl.”

When Oskar returned from his break, Star got busy cleaning up the back room. The boxes and sacks were pretty heavy, and there were a lot of them, so she discretely prepared a little magical stat-boosting espresso shot with her Wand, then continued the task with relative ease.

She was almost done when she overheard the Boss having a conversation with someone on the other side of the closed office door. She knew she probably shouldn’t listen in, but her curiosity beat her self-restraint. She crept up to the office and put her ear to the door.

“No, it’s still not working. No, I didn’t _touch_ it. Yes. Yes, business is fine, I told you that already. We had more customers this weekend than we normally get in a whole week and it’s still not coming out strong enough.” A brief pause. “If I’m _lucky_, I get a few years back. No that’s not enough!” A long pause. The person on the other end of the call must have been explaining something. “Well I hope this is covered by the warranty. No, it’s not expired. What!? No. Unbelievable. Time flies too fast when you get to be my age. Fine. If there’s nothing else we can do. Yes, go ahead, send me the catalog. Thank you. No, I absolutely do not want to do a survey. Goodbye.”

When the call ended, the Boss let out a heavy sigh. Star heard the woman stand up, and she panicked. It probably wouldn’t go well if the Boss came out and saw her just standing there.

Star quickly knocked on the door before the Boss could get to it and pretended like she was there for a reason.

“Uh. Hey, Boss. You got a minute?” She asked through the door, “Had your coffee yet?”

The knob turned and door swung open. Star sheepishly entered to find the Boss seated comfortably in her chair in an intimidating pose that looked like a spider watching a fly bumble around its web, or a queen waiting for a reason to behead her jester.

Star noted to herself with utter disbelief that the Boss looked _remarkably_ better after that cup of coffee – or whatever you would call that sludge. Her complexion was warmer and softer, the shakiness was gone, her posture was more confident – even some of the lavender color was back in her hair. Star had never seen a cup of coffee do that to a person. Not a regular cup of coffee, anyways. What _was_ that stuff?

“What would you like, Miss Butterfly?” the Boss asked coldly, “Come to apologize for the mess you made?”

“Mess? Oh, the stock room. No, I didn’t do that. The uh… the shelf collapsed or something. I’m cleaning it up, though.”

“Wonderful. Would you like a treat for doing your job?”

This woman was so hard to talk to.

“No…” Star realized she still hadn’t come up with a reason to be in here. But she did have something that had been bugging her all day. “Actually, I had a question about the schedule. I seem to be on it, like, a _lot_ next week. Do you know what happened there?”

The old woman waved her hand in the air dismissively and said, “You were volunteered to cover some extra shifts. It’s reading week and most of the staff here are students. They tend to disappear to do whatever frivolous things students do when they aren’t in school.”

“Okay. That kind of makes sense, sure. But like, _every_ shift?”

“Funny, I heard you’ve been whining about losing your shifts lately. I would’ve thought you’d be grateful for the extra hours.”

Who told the Boss the Star was complaining about that? Not Marco, right? But Star hadn’t told anyone else. Why would he—

“If it’s such an inconvenience for you to do some work for once, I can put you right back to one shift a week after the break.”

Star frantically waved her hands in front of her, “No! No I want shifts. Don’t take away my shifts. It’s just, this is a lot to cover in one week without any backup. And I was kind of hoping to get some days off next week, too.”

The woman chastised Star, “I think you misunderstand your position here. You are _the new girl_. I’m sure you’re used to getting everything you want back home, but you don’t have any seniority here, Miss Butterfly. The newest hire has the lowest priority for time off.”

“So I just automatically get stuck with everyone’s shift whenever they want?”

“Yes, that’s precisely how it works. You’ll have to get used to that until we hire another staff person. But don’t worry; with all the students gone, business is slow. We’ll be on reduced hours, and you’ll have fewer customers. Given the favorable circumstances, I don’t think even _you_ could find a way to mishandle the shop on your own, as long as you follow the handbook like you’re supposed to. Mr. Diaz _has_ been impressing upon you the importance of following the handbook, hasn’t he?”

“Uh, yeah, totally. He drills me on it every week. I’m _really_ taking it to heart, too. You know, ‘_Keep it grey, every day_’. Love that.”

“Good. You’ll be fine then. Anything else?”

Star shook her head, thanked the Boss, then went back to the stock room to finish tidying up.

She was sweeping up the last of the spilled beans and sugar when she heard something metallic scrape along the floor under her broom. Silver. Red. Bejeweled. Ponyhead’s Teaspoon? Did she drop it when she got captured? No way. No way no way no _way_.

Star marveled at it, considering the possibilities. She could go _anywhere_. Heck this might even be the solution to her annoying schedule troubles next week. She could get to the campsite and back in a second if she wanted to.

But before she got too deep into brewing up a plan for juggling her shifts and the trip with Marco, she had to stop herself. This Spoon was her best friend’s only way to get away from the hellish nightmare of living in the business school’s dorm. As much as Star wanted to keep it, as much as it might be the key to getting some precious camping time next week, she really shouldn’t. She needed to return this thing as soon as possible.

But wait. What if Ponyhead didn’t _need it_ anymore? Like say if she actually escaped the business school forever somehow. Or at least for reading week. Star could probably figure out some way to keep Ponyhead safe for a couple of weeks, right?

She put the Spoon in her pocket, then spent the rest of her shift trying to come up with a plan to help Ponyhead bail on the school.

Unfortunately, the afternoon quickly disappeared, and by the time she was returning home and struggling to close her crooked apartment door, she still wasn’t any further along in her plan than:

  * Bust in
  * Break everything
  * Bust out

She was usually pretty confident in herself, but even she had to admit that plan was a little sparse.

She dropped her bag by the door, crashed on the grungy, used couch she managed to rescue from the curb a few weeks ago, then stared at the water-stained ceiling of her miserable little apartment. She tried to imagine the stains had stories to them. That one was a kid’s first bath gone wrong. That one was from a really fun party. That one… well that one was just a leaky drain. It had been dripping into a bucket since the day Star moved in, and she couldn’t come up with a believable fiction for it.

Yeah, this place was kind of awful. But it was nothing compared to the dorm rooms at St. Olga’s, and if Star had to choose, she would definitely prefer this lifestyle to whatever Ponyhead must be going through right now.

Star put her stovetop espresso pot on to boil, then filled up a cup with water and went around the apartment watering the colorful Mewnian plants that decorated her windows and tables while she waited for her coffee. She whispered encouraging words to the plants that weren’t looking super healthy, “Do your best, little guy. We’re in this together.”

Star returned to the couch with a cappuccino, then got out her phone to scroll through all her messages, rereading them in disbelief. As she kept scrolling, she got down in her history to Marco’s last message from a couple days ago.

**Marco**

_if you need anything, let me know._

He was following up after profusely apologizing and thanking Star for all the stuff that happened on Sunday.

Star wondered if this whole rescue mission thing was what Marco had in mind. He did say _anything_. This was anything, and she’d definitely need some help to pull this off – whatever ‘this’ ended up being.

Yeah, why shouldn’t she ask him for help if he offered it? She rang his phone and tried to ignore the butterflies in her stomach when he picked up.

“Hey Star,” he answered with a friendly tone, “What’s up? You okay?”

“Hey Marco! How’s it going? What are you up to tonight? Nothing important, right?”

“Actually—”

Star continued, cutting Marco off, “—‘cause I need some help with something. My best friend is in trouble and I gotta go get her out of a bad sitch. I could use a little backup. And I figured, hey, that Marco guy, he sure seems like the kind of guy you could depend on for help with an important rescue mission.”

Marco hesitated to ask, “What kind of trouble?”

“She’s basically stuck in a prison and I’m gonna bust her out.”

“…And how are you planning to do that?”

“You know, explosions and stuff. Look, the plan’s not fully formed yet. I was hoping maybe you could help with that too.”

Star could hear Marco sigh through the receiver, “You don’t have a plan yet, and you want to do this _tonight_? Is it that urgent?”

“The place she’s in _really_ sucks.”

“Where is she?”

“Business school.”

“Okay,” Marco didn’t sound impressed, “Just… _business school_?”

“Look, you’d have to see it to get it.” Star had an idea. “Wait.” She fished the Spoon out of her pocket and asked Marco, “What’s your address?”

“Uh. 4815 Avocado Terrace. Why? Are you—”

Star looked up the location on her phone, then swirled the Dimensional Teaspoon in the air, stirring up the fabric of space and time to open a shimmering portal to the Diaz household. She stepped through and just like that, she was standing in their front yard. The portal dissolved away behind her.

“Okay I’m at your front door. Come outside and I’ll show you what I mean.”

“I’m sorry, you’re _where_?”

“I’m outside! Open the door! I’m hanging up!”

A few seconds later, Marco opened his front door and peered through the crack like he was expecting to get attacked by something.

He looked absolutely bewildered, “Star!? How? You were just… How did you…”

“Dimensional Teaspoon. Makes portals. Come on, we’re gonna go do a little recon.”

Star used the Spoon to open another portal – this time to the outskirts of the business school’s campus. She hopped on through like it was nothing, then realized Marco had not followed her. She went back and grabbed him by the sleeve to drag him along with her.

On the other side of the portal, the sky was dark and cloudy – as it usually was around the school. The air was tainted with the faint scent of burning plastic and dirty money. In the distance, there was a tall brick wall with barbed wire on the top. On the other side was a grey concrete cube of a building with tall, thin windows. The only way through the wall was a large, heavily guarded gate. A sign next to the gate said _St. Olga’s Business College & Reformatory_.

Star hid behind a tree and whispered for Marco to do the same, but the guy was fully engrossed with the portal, moving his hand in and out of its shimmering surface.

“Marco!” Star whispered, “Get over here!”

“Huh? Oh, sorry.” He joined Star behind the tree, “So, you can just make portals, huh? To anywhere? Was that always—”

“Not now. Look,” Star pointed at the ominous-looking building, “That’s where they’re keeping Ponyhead.”

“Ponyhead?”

“My friend.”

“Oh. Right. That’s a perfectly normal name, sure.” Marco gave the ominous school a good look and nodded to himself, “Yeah, okay, I see what you mean. I’m getting some big prison vibes here.”

“Yeah dude, it sucks there. Trust me, I’ve been on the inside. We should get her out as soon as possible. So, help me out?”

“I mean, maybe I don’t get how it works, but can’t you just do this portal thing again to get her out?”

“Yeah sure, but the school’s got these enforcers that’ll hunt you down all across the multiverse if you escape. They’ll just being her back if we don’t do something to throw them off.”

“Can you do the old ‘put a mop and some pillows in her bed’ thing?”

“Well she’s just a floating head, so probably the pillows wouldn’t be necessary. But that trick would only work right up until she was supposed to be sitting in class. Once they notice she’s gone, they’ll just go find her. Good start, though! What else you got?”

“Uh. Erase her records? No?” Marco started listing off ideas, “Get the students to revolt? Swap her with a lookalike? Report the school’s crimes to the ombudsman? Ask nicely?—”

“—Wait, wait. You had a good one in there. A lookalike… We could just leave a coffee copy behind.”

“A coffee copy…?”

“Yeah, there’s a recipe for it in the Pamphlet. Makes a kind of dumb, temporary clone thing. It should still be able to do basic stuff like attend class and run a business, though. And then the real Ponyhead can just do whatever she wants! Yeah, now we’re getting somewhere.”

Marco clapped his hands together with a sense of finality, “Alright cool, my work here is done.” Then he made his way back towards the portal, waving and wishing Star good luck.

“Wait wait wait, I still need your help with actually doing the plan.”

“What? Why? It sounds like you’ve got this. Portal in, give her the drink, leave the copy behind, portal out with the real one. What do you need me for?”

“Well first of all, she just tried to escape today, so she’s definitely in the Punishment Room. It’s guarded and it’s portal-blocked. Second of all, this kind of thing is always more fun with an accomplice.”

“_Accomplice_? That _can’t_ be the word you meant to use. Listen, have you heard of mercenaries? Soldiers for hire? That sounds like what you’re looking for. I’m a barista and a pre-med student who happens to know some _karate_. I am not qualified for prison breaks and rescue missions.”

“Oh, you’ll be fine. It’ll be fun! And,” Star waved the Spoon in the air, drawing colorful swirling patterns in its wake, “We’ll just bail if it gets hairy, okay?”

Marco hesitated for a moment before he asked, “How… how hairy is it gonna get, you think?”

Star mimed fighting an imaginary foe with chops and kicks, “Nothing we can’t handle! I’ll bring a full arsenal of _Explosive Espresso Sorpresas_ and _Sleepy Time Decaffeinators_.”

“Nothing I say is gonna stop you, huh?”

“Nope. Gotta get my friend back.”

Marco rolled his shoulders and let out a sigh, “Fine. Fine, I’ll go.”

Star responded with a delighted little squee, “You’re the best! Okay, I’ll meet you at your place at 9. We’ll go in under cover of night. Dress sneaky.”

Marco stared at his red sweater with a concerned look, “Sneaky. Yeah. Sure. I definitely own some sneaky clothes.”

After getting Marco back home, Star spent a few hours hopping around to different dimensions to collect the ingredients for the duplication drink. It wasn’t easy finding them all. Haggling with shopkeepers for the rarer stuff was the worst part. They’re super stingy, and it wasn’t like Star had a lot of money to begin with, but it was worth it to save her friend. When she got back, she spent the rest of the evening preparing a stockpile of offensive beverages for the mission. Explosives and sleep spells should be all they needed, but she threw in a couple extra utility spells just in case.

When she met up with Marco, he was dressed head-to-toe in black. Star spotted a price tag sticking out of the back of his shirt. Did he go out and buy these _today_? He was surprisingly dedicated to the plan.

He was also, unsurprisingly, pacing back and forth on his front lawn anxiously.

Star waved, “Hey. Ready?”

“I think so. I packed everything I could think of. Flashlight. Bandages. Rope. Towel. Snacks—”

“—Snacks? How long are you expecting this to take?”

“Well the plan is about as precise as a two-year-old with a baseball bat, so I’m guessing anywhere between a few minutes and a few days. Might as well be prepared for the worst.”

Star shook her head. This guy.

“Alright,” Star said, “I’m gonna drop us in a closet near the Punishment Room. I’ll take the lead, you watch our backs, and if we get separated… well, just don’t get separated, okay?”

“Yes. Good. Reassuring. You’re a born leader.”

“Oh shush. It’ll be fine.”

Star dipped the Dimensional Teaspoon into the aethereal distillate between dimensions and swirled open a portal to the reformatory, then she went in and waved for Marco to follow – quietly.

But when they stepped out of the portal, they were not in a closet at all. Instead, it looked like a well-lit break room. There were a couple of couches, a fridge, a microwave, a shuffleboard, and… a couple of students.

_Great aim, Star._

“Uh…” Star was acutely aware of how suspicious they looked, coming through a portal in the middle of the night wearing what were very obviously burglar clothes. She tried to act natural, though. “Hi. I am. Visiting. A friend. Which is a normal thing to do at night. She asked me to help her with a project that involves… measuring… the inside of the Punishment Room?”

Marco whispered, “Smooth.”

Star shushed him.

One of the students – a young lady lounging on the couch in her pajamas with a book – replied, curious, “The Punishment Room? What’s that?”

“_What’s that_?” Star asked, incredulous, “It’s the box! The hole! The place you’re put to be forgotten.” Star saw that the girl had truly never heard of this room, “How have you not _heard_ about the Punishment Room??”

One of the older girls who was playing shuffleboard piped up, “It’s not used for that anymore. They turned it into a student support services office.”

“A _what_?”

“Yeah, the whole school changed after the owner sold the place. You an alum? When was the last time you were here?”

“Like… five years ago, probably?”

“Yeah that makes sense. The old crone bailed a couple years back to start another business or something. The new owner tried to make the school actually… nice? Turned out pretty good, I think. New beds. Nice food. The teachers actually _care_. Basically no one runs away anymore. They don’t want to. Well, almost no one.”

Star was bewildered by all this.

The older girl continued, “Who’s your friend, anyways? I’m the RA for this floor, maybe I know her?”

“Uh. Ponyhead? She a magical floating unicorn head? Blue? Sassy?”

A look of impatience immediately took over the RA’s face, “Oh. _Ponyhead_. Wonderful. _Pretty sure_ she got her visitor privileges suspended, so… not sure why you’re here…”

Marco jumped in, “Helping her with that project, remember? Super important. Due tomorrow.”

“Right. Well, I’ll take you to her room, but come find me in 201 before you leave so I know you’re not staying overnight, okay?”

On the way to Ponyhead’s dorm room, Star marveled at the interior of the building. Fresh, bright paint. Cheerful posters all over the walls about upcoming student-led events. Lights that didn’t flicker. _Lights_. This place was completely different from the dismal grey dungeon she remembered.

Marco whispered to Star, “So. No guards? No scary prison? You sure this is the right place?”

Star shrugged and whispered back, “Ponyhead is here, so… I don’t know. She told me it was awful! Maybe it’s just _secretly_ awful? Keep your guard up, okay? Just in case.”

But there was truly nothing sinister to watch out for. Just a regular student residence.

The RA stopped and knocked on a dorm room door, “Hey Ponyhead, it’s Ange. You’ve got some guests here.”

After a few moments, the door opened, and there was Ponyhead, floating in the doorway looking perfectly fine. Star was starting to feel pretty embarrassed that she made such a big deal about this. So much for a daring rescue mission.

Ponyhead grumbled, “What do you want, _Angela_? I’m watching a show.”

Ange pointed to Star and Marco, “You have guests. You’re not _supposed_ to have guests, of course, but here we are. Deal with them please.”

“Star!” Ponyhead cheered, then turned to Marco with a look of suspicion, “And… a gross weirdo dressed in murder clothes. Okay. Don’t know who that is. He can go.”

Star protested, “Wait wait wait, don’t throw him out. He’s my friend from work.”

Ponyhead circled around Marco to look him over, then returned to the doorway, “That Earth dimension is really messing you up, gurl. You’re hanging out with real turds now, huh?”

“Hey!” Marco exclaimed, “I am not a turd.”

Ponyhead rolled her eyes, “Yeah what_ever_. I guess you can come in. Don’t touch anything though. I don’t want you getting your turdiness on my stuff.”

Star closed the door behind her and, out of habit, she started to put her whole weight into pushing it shut, but stopped herself at the last second when she remembered this wasn’t her apartment. The door here… worked. It closed as smooth as cream. Star spent some time opening and closing it just to live the experience of having functional front door.

“Oh that’s so nice,” she muttered to herself.

“You okay there, Star?” Marco asked, “Having a moment with the door?”

“It’s just so quiet, Marco. Have you ever heard a door close so quietly?”

Star let the door shut itself on its own weight, and listened as it swung closed to rest perfectly in its frame with a satisfying _click_ of the latch.

Marco, clearly not impressed, replied, “Yeah it’s a real marvel alright. You know I do have homework to do, so… did we come here to admire doors or…”

“Right right right. The rescue. On it.”

Star was about to grill Ponyhead on what happened today, but she found herself taken aback by the dorm room. It was stunning – aside from the garbage Ponyhead left scattered all over the place. The room was bigger than Star’s whole apartment. There was a large bed, a couch, a wall-mounted TV, and a modern desk. There was even a mini fridge. The carpet was lovely and clean. There were massive windows that _opened_. Ponyhead was living the life of luxury here. _Why_…

“Ponyhead, why did—”

Ponyhead had returned to watching her show on the TV, and shushed Star, “They’re just getting to the good part.”

“What? Just pause it!”

“Pause _Bam Ui Pati!_? Not happening, gurl.”

Star was getting grumpy. She walked up to the TV and turned it off.

“Ponyhead. Listen. Why did you run away from this place? Seriously. I totally thought you were in trouble or something! That’s why we’re here, to bust you out. But this dorm is like a hotel! My apartment is garbage compared to this place!”

Ponyhead groaned, “Uggggghhhh, okay fine. If you’re going to be such a _mom_ about it. I was _trying_ to bail on a test.”

Star put her head in her hands, “Are you serious??”

“What?? It’s a super hard and stupid test. And I didn’t have time to study. There are too many new seasons of cool shows coming out right now, gurl, you know how it is. I gotta keep up.”

Star shook her head. This was beyond ridiculous. “Well, why did you suddenly disappear from the shop then?”

“The stupid student service nerds brought me back. They called me up and they were like, ‘Lilacia if you’re feeling stressed or whatever we’ll reschedule the test.’ They always cave when I bail. They’re dumb like that.”

So Ponyhead _did_ have a phone? What was all that stuff about not talking to Star in so long then!? She could have called any time!

While Star was turning red with frustration, Marco was just staring in awe.

“Wow you are… kind of a terrible person, huh?” He said, indignant, “Star came all this way because she was worried about you, and it turns out you were just playing hooky? And now you’re trying to brush her off for a TV show? At least say thank you, dude.”

Ponyhead was outraged, “How _dare_ you! I’m not gonna get lectured by some stupid Earth turd. Get out of here!” Ponyhead started shooting little blasts of magic from her horn at Marco to shoo him out of the room, “Go on! Get out!”

“Hey!” Marco protested, retreating from the room, “Fine! Star, I’ll be out here. Hurry up so I can get back to my work?”

“Yeah,” Star replied, impatient resignation in her voice, “I’ll be right out.”

“Aww,” Ponyhead whined, “You’re not gonna stay and binge out with me?”

“No, dude. Marco’s right. You’re being a real jerk. I’m going home.”

“Whatever! Go enjoy hanging out with your stupid new Earth turd boyfriend.”

Star growled in frustration and turned to leave. Then she remembered that the other reason she came here was to return the Dimensional Teaspoon to her friend. But… after seeing all this, she changed her mind on that entirely and decided to not even mention it. It’d probably be better for Ponyhead if she _couldn’t_ escape the school anymore. Maybe then she’d stop taking advantage of the support staff and causing trouble for Star.

On her way out the door, Star called back to Ponyhead, “Hey since you clearly actually do have a phone, why don’t you call me when you’re ready to apologize for all this.”

“Yeah that’s probably not happening,” Ponyhead replied, “But I’ll definitely message you. Some time.”

Star sighed. Ponyhead wasn’t always super great at the day-to-day aspects of being a good friend, but Ponyhead was always there for her when things got bad. They’d been through some stuff together, and this little frustration wasn’t that big a deal. Maybe Star was at fault a little. It would be nice to get an apology though. With a defeated tone, she waved goodbye and said, “Alright. Well. See you around.”

Somehow the satisfying silence of the door closing had lost its appeal. Star found Marco leaning against the wall messing around on his phone.

“Weird,” he said, “All the internet here is like… business related? Even the social media is just pie charts and spreadsheets.”

“Yup. Business dimension. Pretty boring. Though apparently not especially _hostile_ or _menacing_ anymore.”

Marco put his phone away and asked, “You okay?”

“Yeah. Sorry. She’s just like this sometimes. I think she’s stressed or something.”

“I don’t know if your friends are supposed to treat you like that, dude.”

Star shook her head, “Don’t worry about it, we’ll work it out. Let’s just go home.”

They went down to the RA’s room to check out before Star swirled open a portal back to Earth. A moment later, the two of them were standing back on Marco’s lawn saying their good nights.

Star made a portal back to her apartment, then waved to Marco, “Hey thanks for coming. Sorry it was a huge waste of time.”

Marco replied that it was fine. “Maybe next time we’ll get to have a real adventure.”

Star smiled, “Yeah, next time.”

Had Marco secretly been looking forward to their mission that whole time? Maybe he had an adventurous streak in him after all.

Star returned to her dingey apartment and crashed on the couch again. It really wasn’t fair how nice Ponyhead’s place was. Star had basically no hope of finding a better arrangement unless she took on a second job or got a roommate or something.

Before she went to bed for the night, she put her caffeinated armaments away. She was shelving the ingredients for the duplication drink – thinking it was a terrible waste of all the time and money she spent today collecting them – when she suddenly had an idea.

“Wait,” she exclaimed, planting her fist in her palm, “_I_ could be in two places at once. Oh that’s good. That’s real good.”

A smile grew across her face. This was it. The solution to her problem. She’d just make a copy of herself to cover all the shifts she was being forced to cover next week. Then she could spend _every_ day on that camping trip! And she could just pop back to the shop with the Teaspoon once in a while to make sure everything was running smoothly. Oh, it was perfect! Sometimes the universe really conspires in your favor, huh? Star put aside her frustration with Ponyhead and whispered a quiet thank you to the night for her friend’s inspiration and the kind donation of the Spoon.

Star could barely sleep thinking about the trip. Now that she had it all figured out and absolutely nothing could go wrong, next week was going to be awesome. She could feel it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was asked if these short notice shift changes were legal, so I did some digging around for some info on California labor laws. [The most informative source I could find](https://www.7shifts.com/blog/california-labor-laws-cheat-sheet-for-restaurants/) said that generally, you have to give 14 days notice for schedule changes. But I think these changes to Star's schedule would actually be allowed without penalty to the employer because they fit under one of the exceptions to that rule, which says that you can change an employee's shift on short notice...
> 
> _"If another employee previously scheduled is unable to make his or her scheduled shift resulting from sick or vacation time with less than seven days’ notice to the employer."_
> 
> Also, even if it wasn't a 'legal' change, the penalty to the employer is just for them to add one extra free hour to the employee's wages, so... not much of a deterrent.


	7. Some Distance Away

It was a clear and crisp Monday morning. Star was leaning against the exterior wall of her apartment building while she waited for Marco to pick her up. The café was closed today, so Star wouldn’t even have to worry about getting her coffee copy all set up until tomorrow. For one glorious day she could just relax and enjoy her time out in the woods.

Star waved exuberantly when Marco drove up. He was in a shiny red rental car, and he was clearly still getting familiar with the controls, considering how sharply the car came to a halt. He put the blinkers on while he waited for Star to get in.

Star threw her bag in the trunk, then got in the back seat with Janna. She figured the front seat was probably reserved for Jackie – Marco’s honored guest – who they hadn’t picked up yet.

Janna held out her fist for a bump from Star, “What’s up dude?”

Star returned the gesture cheerfully, “Dude! I’m totally pumped, is what’s up. Are you pumped?”

Janna replied, “Pumped is the wrong word for it. More like _salivating with anticipation_.”

Marco interrupted, “I’m pretty sure she’s only coming along to sabotage me.”

“Oh, come on, Diaz. You don’t need _my_ help to make a situation out of this.”

Star could practically hear Marco rolling his eyes, “Do we have to bring her along, Star? I could just leave her on the side of the road somewhere. Maybe in a spooky graveyard in the middle of nowhere? She’d like that.”

Janna protested, “No way, dude. You couldn’t find a grave deep enough to keep me from watching this glorious catastrophe unfold.”

Marco, ignoring Janna, looked back at Star and said, “Hey, seatbelt.”

“What?”

Marco pointed to the strap behind Star’s shoulder, then mimed how to put it on.

“Oh, it’s a safety harness. Gotcha.” Star fastened the clip in place. The interior of the car wasn’t too different from her family’s horse-drawn carriage, but she’d never had to put on a seatbelt before. It made a pretty satisfying click. “Are you a bad coachman or something? Still learning?”

“It’s the other ‘coachmen’ I’m worried about.”

Janna nodded in agreement, “For once the nerd’s got a point. California drivers are kind of insane.”

“And this rental is kind of hard to handle.”

Star nodded sagely, “It’s always an ordeal getting used to a new ride, I get it. I’ve been tossed from my fair share of wild warnicorns.”

It was a short ride to Jackie’s place. Marco was nervously checking the map on his phone at every intersection. And when they finally pulled up to the right address (Marco triple checked), he was visibly sweating.

“Is it hot in here?” He asked, opening his window, “It feels hot in here.”

Janna whispered to Star with a smile, “So it begins.” Then she spoke to Marco, “Hey keep it together, Diaz. You’re fine! You’re just spending a week in the woods with your long-time crush. And your first impression is gonna be driving an unfamiliar car for hours on a crazy highway.”

Marco hung his head and started breathing in short exasperated breaths, “I don’t think… I don’t think I can do this, guys. Maybe we should just cancel the trip…”

Star chided Janna, “Janna, shh, be nice. Marco, you’ll be fine, really. Chill thoughts. Jackie’s not going to be judging you or whatever, okay? Just be yourself.”

Star couldn’t believe Marco was able to endure Janna’s torturous teasing for all these years. He was made of stronger stuff than he let on – just a… big strong… nervous wreck of a man.

Jackie waved cheerfully from her doorstep before she locked the door and walked up to the car.

“Hey man, thanks for putting all this together,” she said.

Marco hadn’t yet recovered his composure when he replied with a nervous, “Yup. No problem. Any time.”

Jackie made her way around to the trunk, but Marco was spacing out and forgot to open it for her. She knocked on the back of the car and yelled, “Trunk! Marco!”

“Right!” he replied, scrambling to find the button.

And when Jackie went to get in the passenger side, it was locked. Marco, apparently forgetting that there was a door unlock button right beside him, tried to reach across the seat to open it, but his seatbelt snagged and he couldn’t reach, so Star leaned forward and popped the door open for the poor guy. Maybe Janna was right about Marco turning this trip into a situation.

Jackie got in and said a quick thanks to Star for getting the door, though she didn’t remember Star’s name.

“It was something cute and spacy, right?” Jackie mused while putting on her seatbelt, “Like Luna? No. Nova?”

“Star,” Star replied with a smile.

“Star! Star. I’ll remember it this time, sorry.” Then Jackie addressed Marco, “Hey I’m ready. Marco. Marco? ~Marco~.”

Marco had his head resting on the steering wheel, but when he heard his name, he shot up straight, “Right! Driving! Off we go!” And then promptly proceeded to accidentally lurch the car backwards before shifting into drive and getting them on their way.

They managed to make it onto the highway without any incidents, but Marco hadn’t said a single word since they set off, and he was gripping the steering wheel so hard it looked like he was trying to rip the thing right out of the car.

Star was trying to chat idly with Janna about books and shows and stuff like that, but it was hard to ignore Marco who was clearly on the verge of having a breakdown up there.

Luckily Jackie noticed too.

“Hey, you okay?” she asked Marco, “You look kinda stressed over there. You want some music on or something?”

Marco relaxed his grip a bit and responded, “Yeah. Yeah, actually. That would be great.”

Jackie got out her phone and plugged it into the console, “Any requests?”

“Oh, uh, whatever you want is fine.”

Jackie put on something with a super chill electronic sound and a lot of vocal harmonies.

“These guys are super underground, but their sound is so good.”

Star had to agree, “What are they called?” she asked.

“_Hello Dramatics_. They’re actually from around here. You should check out one of their shows some time if you’re into it.”

“Yeah! Totally down for that. I never get to do anything fun around here.”

“Right, you said you’re new here, didn’t you?”

“Yeah. Super new.”

“Well if you need someone to show you around, let me know. Echo Creek’s actually got some pretty cool places to hang out if you know where to look.”

Star smiled. This Jackie girl was so friendly and approachable. Why the heck did Marco have so much trouble talking to her?

After a while, the conversation in the car faded and the music took over to fill the silence. Everyone entertained themselves on their phones until they arrived at their first stop – a packed dirt parking lot that sloped down towards a dock on a forested lake. A small shop there advertised snacks, supplies, and canoes for rent.

Everyone stepped out of the car to stretch a bit, and Star followed Marco inside the shop to grab some food while he talked to the owner.

“Hi there,” Marco got the guy’s attention, “I’ve got a reservation this week. Diaz?”

The guy checked a ledger on the counter and nodded, “A-yup. You sure do. Says you got Site J tonight – that’s up the road a bit. Then you got Z, E, and M out on the lake the rest of the week. You’re doing a tour of the islands or something?”

“Sure am,” Marco replied proudly, “Been doing this route for years.”

“Right, you’re _that_ fella. Thought you looked familiar.” The guy glanced over at Star, then out the window at Jackie and Janna, “Strange seein’ you with so much company, though. Reservation was for one camper. How many you got now?”

“Oh sorry, four people.”

“It’s extra,” the guy replied flatly.

“Yeah I figured. How much?”

“Five nights. 35 bucks a head. 125 for another canoe.”

Marco did the math in his head, then handed the guy a stack of bills from his wallet.

The old man said an obligatory thanks, then handed over a laminated camping permit.

After Marco was done, Star sheepishly came up to the counter with a box of cereal and put a bunch of change from her bag on the counter before she left the shop and caught up to Marco before he got back to the car.

“Marco,” she stopped him with a stern tone, “How much was all that?”

“Oh, don’t worry about it. I know you’ve got rent to pay and stuff. I wasn’t using the money for anything anyways.”

“That’s not the point! Why didn’t you tell us it was going to cost you more? I would’ve brought some money to chip in. How much do I owe you for all that?”

“Nothing! It’s fine, I mean it.”

“Marco Diaz, you will let me pay for my share of this trip or I’m going home.”

Marco looked like he was going to continue resisting, but the piercing look Star was giving him clearly changed his mind. “Fine,” he relented, “250 is enough. That’ll cover the camping fees and the car.”

“Thank you. I’ll pay you when we get back, okay?”

“You really don’t—”

“—Oh stop, I’m sure everyone was expecting to chip in for this. Don’t be so weird about it.”

Marco sighed and gave up with a muttered thank you.

When the two of them got back to the car, Star cheerfully informed the others about the extra fees and, as expected, they were entirely agreeable about paying Marco back.

Star clapped her hands together and gave Marco a satisfied look. “There,” she said, “All settled.”

“Alright, fine,” he rolled his eyes at her, “You don’t have to gloat about it. Let’s get back on the road. The campsite’s pretty close.”

When they arrived, Star was surprised by how clean and proper the campsite looked. There was a fire pit with a grill, some benches – even a bear-proof box for food and stuff. This was nothing like how it was when she went camping with her dad. That was always a real adventure, roughing it in the wild, fighting off hungry beasts. Star was beginning to wonder if she really needed to pack all the survival and combat gear that was weighing down her bag. Still, peaceful as it looked, she figured she should still do the rounds and secure their territory against dangerous creatures. While Marco and the others were setting up their tents, Star took her bag of gear and started setting up traps around the camp.

By the time she returned to the others, most of the camp was put together. The tents were arranged in a semi-circle around the fire pit, and Marco was putting the finishing touches on a couple of remarkably tidy pyramids of wood and kindling.

Star gave Marco a little salute before proudly declaring that the premises were secured against intruders.

Marco, focused on getting his stacks of wood symmetrical, absently thanked Star and asked what she meant. But when she explained that she had set up snares and bear traps all over the site, he dropped what he was doing.

“Star you can’t put _traps_ out here. What if someone accidentally steps on one of them? And we can’t hurt the wildlife here anyways. This is a nature reserve.”

Star was perplexed, “What do you mean we can’t _hurt_ the wildlife? What are we gonna eat for a whole week?”

“I brought plenty of food, and I picked up a fishing license, so we should be fine with whatever we can catch in the lake.”

Star’s spirits sunk when she realized what Marco was saying, “So you want me to go take all the traps down?”

“Please. I know you’re trying to help, but that’s just too dangerous.”

“Well fine, but I’m still leaving some around my tent. Don’t come crying to me when a bear ruins all your stuff.”

Star returned to the woods to put away all the traps she’d set. She was almost done when she heard a yelp of surprise in the distance. She jogged over to where the sound came from and found an upside-down Jackie, clad in a bathing suit, dangling about six feet off the ground – her ankle caught in one of Star’s snare traps.

“Oh my gosh Jackie! I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”

“Yup. Just… hanging out, I guess. I always wondered what it felt like to get caught in one of these. Looked like fun on TV.”

“And uh… is it fun?”

“Yeah not so much, actually. Wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re into having all your blood go to your head. Can you get me down?”

Star realized she had never actually released someone from one of these traps before, but nonetheless she gave a half-confident, “Yyyeah… I sure can,” before she went over to the base of the rope and started pondering how she was going to let Jackie down without breaking anything. Maybe she could stand under Jackie and throw a knife at the rope? Or take a running start to slice the rope and dive under Jackie to catch her?

Luckily, she heard Marco approaching, calling Jackie’s name, so she didn’t have to do anything crazy. He must have heard Jackie’s startled yelp and rushed to the rescue.

Jackie replied to his concerned cries, “Hey Marco, over here!”

“Jackie!” He exclaimed when he saw Star’s helpless victim dangling helplessly in the breeze. Then he turned to Star and chastised her, “I told you this would happen!”

“I know!” Star replied remorsefully, “I’m sorry. Look, just get under her and get ready to catch her, I’m gonna cut the rope.”

“What? Me?” Marco sputtered.

“Uh, yeah you, tall guy. I can barely reach her up there.”

Star probably should have guessed that putting Marco in charge of catching Jackie would get him flustered, but he still accepted his duty. He stood underneath Jackie and extended his arms upward for her to grab onto.

Jackie smiled at Marco, “I hope you’ve been doing your pushups, big guy.”

“Uh. Yup. Definitely,” Marco tried to sound cool, while somehow avoiding eye contact with Jackie, “You know what they say, can’t spell _karate_ without _repetitive strength training_.”

Jackie laughed, “Good thing you don’t have to spell _karate_ to be good at it, huh? Don’t drop me, alright? I’m trusting you here, dude.”

“Don’t worry,” Marco replied with a renewed confidence, “I’ve got you.”

Star raised an eyebrow at Marco’s sudden change of tone. It wasn’t the first time he’d just turned his anxiety off to put on a brave face, but she never expected he’d be able to shake off his nervousness around Jackie so easily. It was like a weird superpower or something – one that only came out at the perfect moment, just in time to save the day. Maybe if he kept his cool like that, he’d actually end up making a good impression on Jackie before the end of the trip.

Star called out that she was cutting the rope. “Get ready!”

The rope went loose with a snap, the leaves rustled as the branch was released from the weight of Jackie’s body, and in an instant she was down. And… so was Marco. The sudden shift in weight knocked him off balance, and he ended up on the ground, crushed under Jackie to cushion her fall.

“Whew, what a rush,” Jackie said cheerfully, “You okay Marco?”

“Yup,” Marco wheezed, “Never better.”

Jackie stood up and offered Marco her hand to help him up, “Thanks for the save, dude. You’re a real hero.”

“At your service,” Marco replied, trying to sound cool while speaking through weak, shallow breaths.

Poor guy. That was probably the least cool way to land that.

Star apologized to Jackie again.

“It’s all good,” Jackie smiled, “You’re not the first girl to knock me off my feet. It was actually pretty fun. Alright kids, I’m off to the lake. No more traps that way, right?”

Star shook her head no, so Jackie gathered her beach gear off the ground, waved, and continued on her way.

After Jackie left, Star gave Marco a clap on the shoulder. “Good work out there! I think you really made an impression.”

“Yeah. Too bad it wasn’t a _good_ impression.”

“Oh you’re fine. She’s pretty fun, huh? I get it now. A boring guy like you needs someone like that in his life.”

“I’m not boring! I’m _safe_. Safe _and_ fun.”

Star playfully scoffed at Marco, “You keep telling yourself that, buddy. I’m gonna get back to cleaning up these traps. You going for a swim too?”

“Oh, actually I was going to keep an eye on the campsite…”

“Instead of swimming with a super cute girl you like.”

“Yeah…”

“A girl who totally likes you enough to spend a whole week with you in the wilderness.”

“I mean I’m pretty sure she just likes being outdoors…”

Star gave Marco a stern look, “Marco. Go for a swim. I’ll watch your weird little piles of wood if you’re so worried about them. No excuses.”

Marco raised his hand with a finger extended to make some kind of contention, but he backed down, “Alright fine.”

He paused a moment before awkwardly thanking Star, then he headed back towards the camp.

By the time Star finished up and returned to the camp, Marco had already left for the lake. He’d left behind a note of all the things for Star to keep track of while he was gone – including making sure his piles of sticks were kept perfectly symmetrical while she tended to the fire. It looked like Marco was planning to prepare some dinner too, so she got started on that.

While Star was getting the pots and pans in order, Janna poked her head out of her tent and surprised Star, “Hey.”

Star jumped and dropped what she was holding with a clatter, “Janna! What the heck, dude, don’t do that. Why aren’t you down by the lake?”

Janna shrugged, “I’ve seen water. I get it. That was good work out there with that trap, by the way.”

Star cocked her head to one side, “Are you being sarcastic? You’re hard to read sometimes.”

“No dude, are you kidding? Getting Jackie to _literally_ fall into his arms? Amazing. I couldn’t have put together a better plot myself. Did you see how red he went?”

“What, were you spying on us?”

“Obviously.”

Star tried to explain away the situation while she picked up the cooking gear she dropped. “I don’t know what you think I was doing, but that whole thing was an accident.”

“Sure, dude. An ‘accident’.” Janna smiled and winked, “I get it. I won’t tell a soul about your little match-making scheme.”

“I don’t have any schemes!”

“Right? _‘What schemes?’_ Love it.” Janna winked again, then went back inside her tent.

Star grumbled to herself about Janna’s accusations while she stoked the fire and started making her way through Marco’s recipe – some kind of taco thing? To her delight, nothing burned, and by the end of it, there was actually a pretty tasty-looking spread. A pot of seasoned rice, a spiced vegetarian stir fry, and a bunch of toasted tortillas. Marco had even left some shredded cheese and freshly diced vegetables in a cooler bag in the bear-proof box.

Marco and Jackie came back with towels draped over their shoulders just as Star was putting everything out. They were having a back-and-forth about lake safety, Jackie smiling and snickering at Marco’s ridiculous points – and Marco, entirely out of character, was actually laughing at himself along with her.

When they saw the food, the two of them marveled at it.

“That smells amazing, Star,” Jackie swooned, “You can really _cook_, huh?”

“Nah,” Star wanted to play down her role in the meal a bit, “I was just following Marco’s recipe – his incredibly detailed, step-by-step, minute-by-minute breakdown of a recipe.”

Seriously, even for minutes where there was nothing to do but wait, he wrote in…

_Minute 17. Wait._

_Minute 18. Wait._

_Minute 19. Keep waiting, you’re doing great._

The recipe was basically 100% idiot-proof, and clearly hand-crafted and thoroughly tested by Marco himself, considering all the side notes and safety warnings in the margin.

Star called Janna out of her tent to join everyone for dinner and the four of them sat down for the meal, digging in without much conversation.

After they’d made it through a round of tacos, Star took a breather to ask how the lake was.

Jackie replied first, “Oh fine. Marco almost died.”

“I did _not_ almost die.”

“_Oh no it’s got me_,” Jackie mocked Marco, “_I’m going to die. Goodbye cruel world_.”

Marco insisted he didn’t say any of that.

Jackie continued telling Marco’s harrowing tale, “He got caught in some weeds and started flailing around like it was a kraken dragging him under.”

“I wasn’t flailing! I was just… _treading water_. Badly. But I was fine!”

“Yeah after I untangled your ankle, you big baby. How long have you been camping out here and you don’t know how to take care of yourself in a lake?”

“This is why I was saying there should be lifeguards!”

“It’s the middle of nowhere Marco!” Jackie laughed, “Who would they be guarding all day? The turtles?”

Star pointed out that even turtles need help sometimes. “They get stuck on their backs, right? Poor little guys.”

“See? Star gets it.” Marco continued, “The lifeguard could clean up the shoreline too if they’re bored. There’s always trash floating around out here.”

Janna quickly added, “Humans are the real animals.”

“Listen,” Jackie said, filling up another tortilla with aromatic toppings, “As someone who’s _done_ lifeguard work on an empty beach, it’s already super boring without having to scour the shore for distressed turtles and empty beer cans. And even if there were campers here, it would be pretty weird to be the lifeguard for just like… 2 or 3 people. Sounds like a great way to get kidnapped.”

“What kind of person would kidnap you from a campsite?” Marco asked naïvely.

Janna jumped in, pointing at Marco and giving him a matter-of-fact answer, “Creepy guys, dude. You’d be up there scanning the shore for turtles and then some drunk weirdo campers would just come by and pull you down from your lifeguard throne (or whatever it’s called). And that’s it, you’re done, never seen again. There’s no one out here to help you. Hell, there’s barely anyone to help you deal with creepy guys back in civilization.”

Marco looked a little sad, “Ah. Right. Men are trash.”

Janna nodded, “Men are trash. Sweet that you forgot, though. You might be one of the good ones.”

Jackie snickered, “Can you imagine? Marco Diaz: serial killer. Ties you up and throws you in the back seat, but still insists you wear a seatbelt for safety; makes sure you’re super comfy in the murder dungeon; washes his hands and brings you some snacks before he _gets you_; gets away with it because he’s had the whole thing planned out step-by-step for years.”

Marco protested, “Okay can we not imagine me as a serial killer?”

Star casually added between mouthfuls, “Yeah, if anyone’s a serial killer in our midst, it’s definitely Janna.”

Janna gave Star a devious look and replied in a creepy, singsong voice, “~Guess who just got added to the list, _Miss Butterfly_.~”

Star gave Janna a little shove, “Sto-o-op. I don’t need more evidence, dude.”

Janna whispered, but loud enough for everyone to hear, “_They’ll never find the body_…”

“Janna!” Star snapped back.

The sky was starting to get dark, so the dishes were washed and the marshmallows came out – along with the obligatory campfire horror stories.

Star was the first one to take up the smoldering stick that was their makeshift speaker’s staff. She told tales of her adventures with her dad on various camping trips when she was a kid – descriptions of terrible beasts they hunted down together, and one particularly scary memory that suddenly popped into her head about that time something massive and invisible spent a whole night outside their tent breathing heavily and scratching at the tarp.

“It just sounded like tree branches – maybe just the wind? We checked it out in the dark, but nothing was there, so we said _whatever_ and called it a night. But when we got up in the morning, there were huge footprints and claw marks everywhere.” Star looked directly at Marco, “Which is why set traps, _Marco_.”

Star handed the staff over to Janna, who started spinning chilling tales filled with the long and detailed histories of gruesome murders perpetrated by ‘actual serial killers’ who escaped into the woods – “Right around here, actually,” Janna smiled coyly. And if that weren’t bad enough to listen to, she talked about hauntings, disappearances, and the desperate wailing in the dark that could be heard across the lake sometimes – “From the islands where he buried his victims. He even performed dark rituals over the graves to bind the souls there – _forever_.”

Marco was skeptical, “Come on, Janna, how could you possibly know all that?”

“One of the souls _escaped_, Marco.”

“And came to _you_?”

“Yeah, dude. I’m kind of a big deal in the afterlife.”

“Uh huh.” Marco was clearly not convinced.

“Hey, I don’t care if you believe it, dude. Just watch your back out on the islands. If you feel a chill up your spine, get out of there. The spirits out here are _vengeful_ and _hungry_.”

Marco was totally unphased by Janna’s story, but Jackie was looking pretty spooked, and Star was feeling it too. Maybe the scary stories weren’t such a great idea.

“Come on, dude,” Marco complained at Janna, reacting to the uneasy atmosphere around the campfire, “Don’t tell stories like that. You know we’re going to be out there on the lake for the rest of the week, why are you doing this?”

Janna smiled and shrugged, “What fun is a camping trip without a looming sense of dread, Diaz? Alright, that’s it for me. You’re up, nerd.” Janna tossed the stick over the fire pit to Marco, “Let’s hear your horror story. Math class, no pants? Straight C’s on your transcript? _Car door hook hand_?”

“How did you—Oh whatever, Janna. I can tell a scary story just fine. Once, in the woods – _just like these very woods_,” Marco gestured dramatically at the trees, “There were four campers – _just like us_.” He paused for dramatic effect. It was not dramatic.

“Great start, dude,” Janna said sarcastically. “Really getting the shivers over here.”

Marco continued, undaunted, “All was going well, the four of them smiling and laughing around a campfire. And as the night wrapped up, they retired to their tents, expecting a peaceful night’s sleep. But there would be no peace. Because unbeknownst to the campers, they had stumbled into the territory of the wildlings that roamed the lake woods, and on a most unfortunate night, because that very night – that was _The Night of the Rowdy Teens_.”

Marco’s face was dead serious when he stopped, seemingly waiting for gasps from his audience, but before he could continue, Jackie burst out laughing, and all the tension in the air was gone.

“You’re hilarious, Marco,” she said.

Marco was fully derailed by that.

“I am?” he asked, a little disheartened.

“Yeah dude. That was great. I definitely needed something ridiculous like that after Janna’s story.”

Marco tried to pretend it was intentional, but Star and Janna shared a look confirming that they both knew he was being 100% sincere – that he truly believed rowdy teens in the dark were just as scary as real actual ghosts.

After falsely admitting it was a joke, Marco gave up on continuing his story and handed off the staff to Jackie.

Hers was less like a scary camp story and more like a bad dream. It started with a girl who was out in the woods with her girlfriend. They’d been warned by a creepy old guy that today was a dangerous day to be out in these woods. That today was the day things got lost. Important things. But the girls didn’t take it seriously and went out anyways.

While they were hiking and enjoying themselves, their phones died, and they got lost. Darkness fell before they could find shelter, and a storm suddenly picked up. The winds and the rains were so strong that they could barely see each other, but they kept looking for somewhere to hide from the storm. An outcrop, a cave, anything.

They held hands to keep from losing each other, but one of them slipped and lost her grip on the other. She fell into a river valley, the two of them were separated, and she had to face the darkness and the rain alone until sunup.

“But when she went to look for her girlfriend in the morning, there was no sign of her,” Jackie said in a haunting tone, “It wasn’t just no footprints, either. She backtracked to their car, but it was empty. Too empty. The passenger seat had no crumbs from the sandwich her girlfriend had messily eaten there the day before. There was no guitar forgotten in the back seat. Even her girlfriend’s phone charger was gone. The girl plugged in her own phone and tried to send a message to her girlfriend, but her contact info was gone, and so was their conversation history. No photos. No emails. Nothing. It was like she never existed.

“The girl couldn’t accept it, so she went back into the woods herself. The empty car was only discovered weeks later.

“They never found her,” Jackie finished with a serious tone. “To this day, they say she wanders the woods alone, living in the storms, searching for a girl that may never have existed, refusing to accept that she was left behind to face the world alone – and if you listen carefully in the forest rain, you can still hear her crying and calling out pathetically for her beloved.”

Marco, Janna, and Star were all silent for a few moments after the story ended.

Janna finally broke the somber stillness, “Dude, that’s not a scary story, that’s a sad story. Disqualified.”

Jackie laughed, “Was it a competition?”

“Yeah dude, obviously,” Janna replied. “Alright, voting time. Who had the scariest story?”

Everyone agreed it was easily Janna’s win, and Janna gave a celebratory fist pump. Then she stood up and said good night, retiring to her tent with her prize – which was, apparently, the rest of the bag of marshmallows.

“She still kinda plays by her own rules, huh?” Jackie mused.

“Yeah, that never really changed,” Marco sighed. “You’d think she’d grow out of it or something.”

Janna called out from her tent, “I can hear you!”

Marco replied, “Good! You’re a brat and you should feel bad about it!”

“I don’t! And you love it!”

Star watched quietly, feeling like a bit of an outsider here. These three had a long history, so she was kind of just tagging along and trying to figure it all out, waiting for the occasional conversation she could jump into.

Jackie smiled warmly at Marco and Janna’s interactions. “You two really haven’t changed at all. It’s nice hanging out with you guys, like taking a trip back in time – _way_ back in time for you,” Jackie said to Marco. “I forgot how much fun you are, Marco Diaz. I can’t believe you bailed on us.”

“What do you mean?” Marco asked.

“What was it? Summer of grade 10? You just disappeared. The whole school was spreading rumors about you in the fall. Some kids were convinced you were dead, or kidnapped, or that you were recruited by the FBI or something.”

“Seriously? How did no one know? I _literally_ had an early graduation party. I mean, no one _came_, but I still invited a bunch of people. _Someone_ should have remembered.”

“Why _did_ you leave?” Jackie inquired.

“I was just done! I got my diploma early and got into college. It’s all part of the Dr. Diaz Master Plan.”

Jackie smiled, but there was a hint of sadness in her eyes, “Yeah that sounds pretty on-brand for you. I respect that, you know? Chasing your dreams and all that. I guess it just sucks that one of the steps in your plan was leaving all your friends behind.”

Marco stared into the fire, lost in thought. After a while, he softly replied, “I guess I didn’t think I’d be missed that much.”

“Well, you were. But you can’t just wait around for other people I guess.” Jackie’s tone became a little morose, “Kind of scares me, honestly – people like you, all full of ambition, just going out there and doing stuff. I feel like I’m kind of stuck treading water sometimes, tangled in the weeds.”

“Hey, too soon,” Marco joked. Then he followed up with a question of his own, “What do you want to be doing? You could just go do it, you know.”

Jackie leaned back and looked up at the trail of smoke and ember drifting off into the clear night sky.

“That’s the thing,” she said, “I don’t think I want to do _anything_. I feel like I’m just waiting for something, just wasting time. I think about college sometimes, but like, _huge_ waste of money if I don’t know what I want to do. Working a job in retail or service sounds terrible. Or an office. Or like, anywhere, really. And what’s left if you take all that off the table? Just skating around town, sitting in the park, checking out the local bands, driving down to the beach. Wasting time. Waiting for something. Just feels kind of embarrassing while Chloe’s out there learning how to be a world class chef. How cool is that? Inventing entirely new foods and stuff. Crazy. She’s gonna own a famous restaurant one day, and I’m gonna be sitting around at home doing nothing, just smiling like an idiot and looking pretty like some ditzy trophy wife.”

Star kind of zoned out for a second when she realized what Jackie was saying. She was… already dating someone? But… what about… Marco…

“_Chloe_?” Marco asked, his voice cracking with a hint of dread.

“Oh right, you never met her, did you? Yeah, I went for a semester abroad the same summer you left. We hooked up in France while I was there – that’s where her family lives. She really knocked me off my feet, I was totally blindsided by it. I’ll have to introduce you guys some time, she’s really nice. I’m sure she’d love the chance to cook something for you. It’s this whole big thing for her, to show off her food and make people smile.”

“Is France far away or something?” Star asked.

Jackie laughed, “You’re _really_ not from around here, are you?”

“Oh, no, I’m from another dimension. _No_ idea about places on Earth.”

“Huh. Well, yeah, France is on the other side of the planet – like 12 hours and a couple paychecks away by plane, across an ocean and a whole continent no matter which way you go.”

“Yikes,” Star said, “That sounds rough.”

“It is, yeah. We can tough it out, though. She’s pretty creative about setting up these cute little long-distance date nights. Like, last week, she ‘took me’ to this theater-in-the-park thing. But it was all in French, and I was just watching through the camera on her phone, so I could barely understand most of it. But it was nice to _sort of_ be there with her at least.”

Star nodded along, but her mind was elsewhere. She was worried for Marco. It must hurt to find out his crush was already in a relationship like that. She hoped it wouldn’t ruin his enjoyment of the trip.

For Marco’s sake, because he definitely wasn’t going to, Star asked, “So, you’re still… uh—” She glanced over at Marco, who looked like he trying to be polite in hiding the fact that his guts were presently getting twisted up in a machine. “—_together_ for the foreseeable future?”

“Yeah, we’re gonna try to make it work. She’s got a few more years of culinary arts over there, and I’m just doing _whatever_ over here, but we’ll probably cross paths again, you know? That’s the plan, anyways. For now, we’re just doing our best with this whole long-distance thing. She… uh… _we_ started doing an open relationship thing, too. She thinks it’ll take some of the pressure off, help us feel less lonely or whatever. I haven’t really done anything with that, though, so, you know, still feeling pretty lonely.”

Star tried to relate, “I used to be in a long-distance relationship with a guy from the Underworld, so I kind of get it. Though, I guess it’s not really the same, since he could have just come over whenever using his demonic powers. Not that he _did_. It’s like, _make an effort_, right?”

Jackie nodded along, but she didn’t really seem to be paying attention. She was absently poking at the coals of the fire with a stick, sending random bursts of ash and ember into the air.

“I really miss her,” she eventually said in a low tone, “She usually visits every summer, but some family stuff came up this year, so, you know.” Jackie jabbed at the fire again. She seemed to be rethinking whether to continue speaking or not, but eventually she went on, “Actually, she was… supposed to visit this week too… but… more… _family stuff_. So really, it worked out pretty well that you guys invited me out here. I’d just be moping around at home about it.” She shot Star and Marco a smile, “Now I get to mope out in the woods with some friends. Way more fun.”

“Is it?” Marco asked with an incredulous tone, “I think I’d rather mope at home.”

“Nah, that’s not healthy. You gotta commiserate and move forward with stuff like this.” Jackie shook off her funk and turned her attention towards Marco, “How about you, Marco? What’s your love life look like these days?”

“Uh,” Marco looked at the ground, “It doesn’t look like anything, really.”

“Aw come on, don’t be shy about it now. I just poured my heart out over the fire there.”

“No, really,” Marco insisted. “I’ve got nothing going on. Just living that good, good bachelor life,” Marco tried to laugh at himself, but it was painfully obvious he was not at all happy about his situation.

“Huh,” Jackie continued, “You know, someone smart and cute like you, I figured you’d have a whole fan club up at the college by now.” Jackie looked over at Janna’s tent and lowered her voice, “_And I always thought Janna was into you_. That never happened?”

Marco turned red, “No! Are you kidding? Why would you think that?”

“What do they call it?” Jackie mused, “_Tsundere_ or something? Picking on you to hide her feelings? No?”

“No, dude,” Marco shook his head in disbelief, “I think it’s called _sadism_ with Janna. Her only joy in life is making me suffer.”

It occurred to Star that Janna, queen of intel, definitely already knew about Jackie’s girlfriend. No wonder she wanted to come along, then. This is what she must have meant about watching Marco squirm. In fact, Star thought, Janna probably orchestrated this whole thing from the very beginning. _Sadist_ was maybe too nice a word for her. She was probably listening right now from her sleeping bag and enjoying every moment of this.

Jackie turned to Star with the same question, “What about you, Star? No way a girl like you is single.”

Star was kind of taken off guard by the inquiry, “Oh, uh, no I’m pretty single.”

“Really?” Jackie asked in disbelief, “Anyone on your radar?”

Star thought about it for a moment before replying, “There’s a cute guy at work? I think he only has enough room in his heart for his keytar, though.”

Marco laughed, “_Oskar_? That’s your type?”

“I don’t have a _type_, Marco Diaz. I said he’s cute. I’ve got a variety of tastes,” Star put on a fake regal tone, “Each more refined than the last.”

Jackie asked about that guy Star mentioned earlier, “From the… _Underworld_? For real? Like the place people go when they bite it?”

Star nodded, “Tom. Half-demon guy. He was a bad boy. Fun on a good day, but kind of awful on a bad day. I thought I was into that, but you know, I was young and kind of stupid and I didn’t really see how he was treating me. Figured it out eventually, with a little help.”

“Ah,” Jackie nodded, “But isn’t that like… a demon’s whole thing? Being bad to people?”

Star shook her head, “No, that was definitely a _Tom_ thing. Anyways, that’s one of the nice things about being here on Earth: he doesn’t know I’m here, so I don’t have to deal with him coming to bug me at work anymore.”

“He came to your _work_? After the breakup?”

Star nodded.

“That’s kind of intense. Sorry you had to deal with that.”

Star shrugged. She’d always thought Tom was mostly harmless, but it was pretty awkward when he’d come in and make a scene in front of the customers at the Butterfly Café. Star’s mom had to kick him out a few times. It was a whole thing. Star figured it was probably better not to talk about it here.

“Well,” Jackie continued, “If you’re over it and you’re looking for someone, let me know. I think I’ve got someone you’d get along with.”

“I don’t know, I barely even have any _friends_ in town. Just these two, really,” Star pointed at Janna’s tent and at Marco.

Jackie got out her phone while she asked, “Do you like writing?”

“Uh. No, not especially?”

“Huh, well that’s fine. I go to this little writing circle thing every couple of weeks, but it’s less about writing and more about just hanging out. The crew’s real chill. You’d like them.” Jackie handed Star her phone, “Here, give me your number. I’ll let you know the next time we’re meeting up.”

Star added her contact info to Jackie’s phone with a little heart next to her name, then returned it.

Jackie smiled, “_Butterfly_? That’s so cute.”

The three of them kept talking for a while about Jackie’s writing club, Star and Marco’s hobbies, and other random things. When Marco’s tidy piles of wood were almost depleted, he called it a night and put out the fire with a bucket of water.

Star said good night and went to her tent. She got changed and crawled into her sleeping bag. Sleeping on the ground was less comfortable than she remembered, but there was still something nostalgic and relaxing about the experience. It was nice listening to the gentle breeze, the rustling leaves, and the chirping of insects and frogs – and it was especially nice being out here with some people she could call friends. It was fun seeing Marco and Janna outside of work – and Jackie was super nice. She’d definitely follow up with Jackie about going out to a show when they got back.

Despite the chilly air in Star’s tent, this was probably the warmest and happiest she’d felt since she got to Earth. She was so lost in cheerful reflection that she almost forgot that she had to set herself a super early alarm for the morning. If she wanted to stay out here all week (and she did), then she’d have to get up before the sun to put her Excellent and Entirely Foolproof Coffee Clone Plan into action. She went to bed looking forward to the morning, only slightly worried that a scary guy was roaming the lake woods looking for fresh young victims.

_Thanks, Janna_.


	8. Let Go

Marco got far less sleep that night than he was hoping to. No rowdy teens, but a mind full of static and a stomach full of writhing tangled sinew made it pretty hard to settle down. What was he thinking bringing Jackie out here like this? Hearing that she was dating someone else really got him. He had no idea how badly that would hurt, probably because he had no idea how much he’d been building it up, imagining some romantic gesture that would, what, magically win her heart over or something? In the wilderness where she had no way to get home other than an hours-long car ride with him? The more he thought about it, the more stupid he felt about it, and the more he was able to convince himself it was for the best that his crush was over – that it had to be over.

_Get over it, Marco. Be normal._

He got up with the dawn chorus just as the sun was rising – after a solid two hours of sleep – feeling like absolute garbage. It looked like everyone was still inside their tents, so he wandered down to the lake to wash his face and take some time to relax by the water, maybe clear his head, fortify his heart, scream internally. On his way down to the water, he was surprised to find a shimmering portal near the shore. From the other side of the interface, he could hear Star’s voice. It sounded like she was giving instructions to someone.

A moment later, Star reappeared on Marco’s side of the portal, calling back over her shoulder, “And don’t break anything! I’ll know!”

When Star turned around and spotted Marco, she jumped with surprise.

“Marco!”

“Mornin’,” Marco said through a yawn, then he asked, “What are you up to so early in the morning?”

“Uh, just… making sure… my _replacement_ is all set up to handle the café.”

A groggy realization stirred in Marco’s head, “Wait, if you can just portal back any time, why did you need me to bring you camping at all?”

Star stared at Marco, looking absolutely incredulous. “_Really_?” she asked with a tone that jabbed at him for not knowing the answer.

“I mean, I’m just saying, you probably wouldn’t even have to pay—”

Star shook her head and scornfully told Marco, “I just wanted to hang out with you outside of work for once, dude. You’re a cool guy, and I want to be friends. Do you _know_ how hard it is to make friends? Could you maybe make this a little easier on me and be a just a tiny bit less weird about it? Just a little?”

“Sorry,” Marco replied, now aware of the trouble he’d been giving Star, “You’re right. Making friends is… hard. I’m not super good at it.”

“Oh _really_?” Star said with sarcasm so thick it could only be cut with an angle grinder.

“Yeah, I know, news flash of the century.”

Marco sighed. He often told himself that he wasn’t alone in the world (while sitting by himself at home on a Friday night), that he still had all the friends he did back from high school, that it was fine to have nobody to hang out with at the college who wasn’t just trying to use him for his notes. But after what Jackie said last night, it was kind of hitting him hard that he really didn’t have a connection to anyone he left behind when he graduated – except Janna, who had always been more of a nemesis than a friend, really.

It was nice Star wanted to be closer. He relented to himself that he really should stop trying to pretend he wasn’t allowed to enjoy Star’s company – Buck’s HR policy be damned. And besides, it was useless to try, since all the defenses he put up were a waste of time when Star was so good at cutting right through them. When he looked in his heart, took a moment to be honest, he had to admit that he felt like he could trust Star with anything – except maybe keeping the café in one piece.

Marco dropped his guard and gave in. “Want to come down to the lake with me?” he offered, “I’ve got some sulking to do. It’s pretty in the sunrise. Might be nice to have some company.”

Star put her hand on Marco’s shoulder consolingly, “Still bummed about last night?”

There. Just like that. She just cut right through him again.

The two of them sat on a couple of big rocks by the water and watched the morning fog rolling over the water, painted orange in the sunlight.

Marco sighed, “Janna told you everything, I guess?”

“Oh. I dunno, what’s ‘everything’?”

“Jackie. Me. The crush I never did anything about. And now, I guess, that I never _can_.”

“You’re just cutting and running here, huh?”

“What am I supposed to do? She’s already dating an amazing girl in France. She’s probably not even into guys,” Marco laughed and shook his head, “Barking up the wrong tree this whole time.”

Star looked confused, “Why wouldn’t she be into guys?”

“What? You think she’s into both?”

Star looked oblivious to what Marco thought was an obvious truth.

“Why not?” she asked.

“Come on, what are the odds of that?”

“Uh I dunno, pretty good? I’m into both. Is that weird here or something?”

Marco went silent, totally shut down by the overwhelming power of Star’s openness. He felt small next to her. Was something wrong with him that he had to keep all his cards so close to his chest? He imagined that if Star had a crush, she’d probably just do something about it without a second thought. How was she so unwaveringly confident in everything she did?

The lake joined Marco in silence. Just birds, fish popping up to nip at the bugs, and some animal scurrying around in the brush behind them.

After a few moments, he deflected the conversation, “Who’s covering for you at the café this week? I thought I saw your name all over the schedule.”

Star laughed nervously, “Ha ha, well, uh. Okay, don’t be mad.”

“Why would I—”

“Just promise. I really wanted to come out here this week, okay? So don’t be mad.”

Marco was suspicious, but he nodded that he’d try to be understanding, even though he was pretty sure he’d regret it.

“It’s magic. I made a copy of myself to run the shop.”

Yup. Regret. There it was. Still, he promised not to be mad, so he downgraded to ‘concerned’.

“You sure that’s a good idea? If the Boss finds out—”

“Well she won’t, unless someone rats me out. And you wouldn’t rat me out, _would you_ Marco?”

“Never.”

Star hesitated for a moment before she said, “You did before, though, didn’t you? When I was complaining about the Boss.”

That didn’t sound right. “What are you talking about?”

“Someone told her I wanted more shifts. It wasn’t you? I didn’t tell anyone else.”

“Oh! I mean, yeah, of course I told her about that. It sounded like she was being unfair. You didn’t… did you get in trouble for that?”

“Well. Not ‘in trouble’. But she wasn’t happy about it, I think.”

“Aw Star, I’m sorry, I had no idea. I was just trying to help.”

Star smiled, “Yeah, that sounds more like Marco. It’s all good. I figured you weren’t out to get me. You’re just really into the rules so… I dunno, I don’t know what all that stuff is worth to you.”

“Well it’s definitely not worth more than my friend’s job.”

Marco was pretty sad to hear that his reputation was apparently so damning.

In spite of that, though, Star smiled, “So we _are_ friends.”

“That’s really important to you, huh?”

“Yup.”

“Say we are friends: do I get a pin or something?”

“You get to come over to watch shows and eat pizza, is what you get.”

Marco smiled, “That doesn’t sound too bad.”

“Uh yeah it’s actually pretty great – if you don’t mind a super lumpy couch and a tiny little TV.”

They continued chatting until the fog lifted from the lake, then they got up and walked back to the campsite.

Before they got too close to the tents, Star added one final point to the conversation that Marco had tried to get out of earlier, “Hey, about Jackie. She said she’s in an open relationship, right? Room for one more? If getting with her is important to you, I don’t think you should give up. I’ve seen you be kind of down on yourself sometimes, but you really are a great guy, and if she _is_ into guys, I think she’d feel pretty lucky to have you.”

Marco rubbed his arm anxiously, “And… what if she says no? What if she doesn’t like me? – after. What if she never wants to see me again?”

“Are you kidding? I’ve only known Jackie for a one day and even _I_ can tell that she’s way too chill to let a little confession mess things up with you. You’ve known her for years, you really think that’s how she is?”

Marco thought about it. He’d been stumbling over himself with Jackie for a long time. She always smiled at him anyways, always put up with his rambling and mumbling and clumsy mistakes around her. But he didn’t want this to be just another endearing fumble in front of her. He wondered what would be worse: if Jackie took it seriously and it really did ruin everything, or if she just laughed it off like it was nothing.

“I’ll think about it,” he told Star, then added a quiet thank you.

When they got back, Jackie was working on breakfast – a one-pan egg scramble. It looked and smelled like she threw in a little of every ingredient she could find in their supplies.

“Hey,” she smiled and waved. “Should be ready soon.”

“What is it?” Star asked.

“Old family recipe. We call it, ‘Messed Up the Omelet So It’s Just Eggs and Whatever Now’.”

Marco nodded sagely, “A classic. Smells good, though.”

Once they dragged an extremely reluctant and yawny Janna out of her tent, they made their way through breakfast. Marco ran through the game plan for the day. Pack up the tents again. Head back to the canoe rental place. Park the car for the week. Grab some canoes. Head out on the lake. Land at the next campsite.

Janna was the only one who was nonplussed about the plan.

“We can’t just stay here?” she complained, “What’s missing? You got the water right there. A car in case we get sick of all this outdoors stuff. Lots of food.”

Marco put his foot down on it, “Listen, this is _my_ trip, and I like to move around when I’m camping. Feels more like a real adventure out in the wild – in the safety of a well-maintained, state-regulated campground. You can stay here if you don’t want to come with. I’ll pick you up when we leave.”

Janna sighed and gave up on her campaign to derail the trip, accepting her fate as a tagalong on Marco’s lake island odyssey.

After breakfast, the tents came down, the car was loaded up, and they drove back to the old guy in the little boat shop. Marco went inside and returned with a paddle and a life jacket for everyone. He took some time to show Star – who clearly had never worn a life jacket before – how to fasten it securely.

As he tightened the last belt on Star’s vest, Marco asked, “You _do_ know how to swim, right?”

“Oh totally, totally. We hung out with the merfolk on the coast every summer when I was little. I only nearly drowned a _couple_ times, it was fine.”

Marco sighed. “As always, you really know how to inspire confidence, Star.”

He resigned himself to keeping a constant watch on Star whenever she was near the water.

“Okay,” Marco took on a supervisory tone as he addressed the group, “Let’s split up the team with one pro and one novice in each canoe. Jackie, you good with helping Janna out?”

“Uh hey excuse me,” Janna protested, “Who said I was a novice?”

Marco gave her an incredulous stare.

“Just give me a name, Marco. Snitches get stitches.”

“Janna. Please. Your life jacket is on backwards.”

Janna scoffed, “Yeah, maybe by your chauvinistic patriarchal standards. This is a political fashion statement.”

“Look, I know you’re not exactly Miss Athletics. I’ve been watching you struggle with your gear since we got out here. You didn’t come down to the lake yesterday. You tried to get us spooked about the islands. I can do the math, dude. It’s no big deal if this isn’t your jam, and it’s cool that you’re still trying. But… like… please tell me you still remember how to swim. We spent a whole semester on it in grade school.”

“I remember how to _float_. That’s good enough, right?”

Somehow Marco had ended up on a lake camping trip with two people who would probably sink in the water like stones. _Wonderful_. This was supposed to be a relaxing escape, and yet somehow it was turning out to be more stressful than working a Sunday shift with Star.

Marco pulled Jackie aside and quietly pleaded with her, “Hey, I hate to ask, but can you help me keep an eye on these two?”

“Aw Marco, you’re worried about them? That’s sweet of you. I don’t think they’re going to drown with life jackets on, though.”

“Yeah… I mean it’s not _likely_… but still, it’d mean a lot to me to have some backup, just in case.”

“Yeah of course. Maybe I can finally justify that annual CPR recertification.” Jackie mimed the act of doing chest compressions in the air, muttering that disco song about staying alive.

“Man,” Marco stared blankly into the distance, “I sure hope not.”

Canoes in the water, Marco got in before Star so he could keep the canoe stable. He sat at the back, since the rear position was definitely a bit too much for a novice to handle. He offered patient guidance to Star to help her get in without tipping the canoe over, and – miraculously – by the time they were moving through the water, neither Star nor Janna had fallen into the lake. Maybe there was hope yet.

The pace was pretty slow while Star struggled to get her bearings with the paddle. Marco quietly endured the spouts of water that Star’s noisy, unpracticed strokes sent flying back into the canoe, but the boat was slowly filling up with water and their gear was at risk of drowning, so he had to stop her.

He waved the other two to go on ahead, then crawled up to the front of the canoe to give Star some coaching.

“Like this?” she asked, still not quite getting the angle right.

“You’re being too aggressive with it. Be gentle.”

She was clearly trying her best to follow Marco’s instructions, but she was getting a little frustrated and flustered.

“Well how are we supposed to go fast if I’m being gentle, Marco?” she demanded.

“Let’s not worry about going fast for now. Just… look,” Marco took the paddle from Star and showed her the difference between her frantic splashing motions and the patient, even trajectory of a proper front stroke. “It should be a smooth, straight line from front to back. Put all the force into the stroke when it’s under the water, then just delicately pull it out at the end. The whole stroke should be almost silent. The surface of the water should barely move. And there should be absolutely no splashing.”

He handed the paddle back for Star to take a few practice strokes. She was close, but still not quite there, so he leaned forward and adjusted the position of her hands on the paddle to give her more leverage and a better angle of attack. It helped, and she was definitely getting the hang of it.

“There you go,” he said, proud of her progress. “Just focus on keeping it silent for now, okay? We’re not in a rush. Relax. Enjoy the peace of the lake. It’s a lot easier to take it all in when your boat is gliding peacefully through the water.”

Star stopped what she was doing and took a moment to listen to the lake. She seemed a little awestruck by it. Maybe she had been too distracted by the stress of paddling the canoe properly to appreciate it.

“It’s really still,” she mused.

“Yeah. I love this place. There’s nothing like the quiet on a lake. Makes everything else disappear.”

The water stretched out for miles around – crystal clear, a shimmering mirror of the sky. A distant bird sung out across the lake for attention. The smooth surface of the water was occasionally disturbed by a fish nipping at some insect. Ahead of them, tiny wooded islands dotted the horizon. One of those islands was their destination today – a little campsite right by the beach. It was a pretty chill first stop. No portaging or rapids on the way. Marco had changed his plans a bit to accommodate the unexpected tagalongs on the trip, since he figured it’d be better to ease them into all the hard stuff.

“I wonder where all the water comes from,” Star said dreamily. “Why doesn’t it just disappear into the ground?”

“That… is a good question,” Marco replied while he carefully returned to his seat at the back of the canoe. “I think it comes down in streams from the mountains? But… yeah, why doesn’t it just drain into the ground? Something to do with aquifers and water tables?”

“No idea what that means.”

“Uh, yeah honestly I’m not sure. That stuff is a little outside the scope of my studies.”

They got on their way, trying to catch up with Jackie and Janna, who seemed to be waiting patiently a few hundred yards ahead.

While they paddled along, Star seemed to be more interested in carrying on a conversation than listening to the quiet of the lake. When he agreed to let Star along on the trip, Marco had worried that her energetic nature might get in the way of his enjoyment of the peaceful atmosphere – but for some reason, he didn’t mind as much as he thought he would.

Star asked Marco what he was studying.

“Well eventually it’ll be medicine. For now, it’s just biology, chemistry, and psychology.”

Star marveled at that, “You’re going to be a _doctor_? That’s co cool!”

“Oh, yeah, I guess so.”

“Have you learned any fun potions yet?”

“Uh. We don’t… really use… Well, I guess you _could_ call some medicines a potion. But no, I don’t know how to make medicine yet. I _have_ learned how to turn a bunch of powders and liquids into different kinds of powders and liquids. Top of the class in advanced chem right now,” he gloated, “So I’m pretty good at that, for what it’s worth.”

“You can do _transmutation_?? Marco Diaz, why are you holding out on me like this? I could totally use your help practicing my recipes if you could just _make_ some of the hard ingredients.”

Marco smiled at that. Star’s coffees were practically medicine in their own right. Maybe he could even get a head start healing the sick if he worked with her. Though the ethics of using untested medicines on unwitting strangers… But it was just a fancy recipe, wasn’t it? People ate weird food all the time, right? Was this different?

“I’m not sure how useful I’d be,” Marco replied, “But yeah, you know what, if I can help with your research and stuff, just let me know. I’ll see what I can do.”

Star stopped paddling and turned around with a look of awe, “Are you serious? You’d help me do my magic stuff?”

“Sure, why not?”

“It’s just, you know, kind of hard to believe. After how much you give me a hard time about it in the shop?”

“That’s because it’s _in the shop_! Where I work! Where tons of people are?”

“So… if it’s not in the shop…?”

“Yeah, like, don’t you have something at home to use?”

Star put on a tone of mocking surprise, “Marco _Diaz_, are you saying you want to go to a coworker’s _home_? I thought you had principles, boss.”

“No! I just… Look, if the choices are: accidentally explode the café; or accidentally explode your kitchen? I kind of prefer the second option.”

“Gee, thanks,” Star replied sarcastically.

“You know what I mean! I just don’t want anyone getting hurt. Also, you know, I want to keep my job.”

Star paused for a moment before she asked, incredulous, “Do you?”

“What? Want to keep my job? Why wouldn’t I?”

Had he really been letting on that he was feeling a little dissatisfied with his job lately? He definitely hadn’t told anyone…

“Oh, I don’t know.” Star explained, “You just seem super stressed all the time. The Boss being so pushy? And Janna always sabotaging you? You’re really happy there?”

“Listen, I was fine before you—”

Marco stopped himself short. He almost said something he’d regret.

_Before you came along_.

But it was too late. Star wasn’t stupid. She definitely filled in the blanks there.

_Before you started breaking stuff_.

The stillness of the lake returned as she fell silent. For the first time in his life, Marco wasn’t happy to hear it.

_Before you made everything complicated_.

That isn’t what he meant. That’s not it. It wasn’t her. The loss of his peaceful Sundays? The extra stress of teaching her how to follow the Boss’s ridiculous rulebook? The property damage? None of that really changed how he felt about his job. It wasn’t the stuff she did, it was… what? How she did it? _Why_ she did it? Just something _about_ her woke him up to something wrong in his own head. The job didn’t _get worse_ because she was there, she just made him realize _it should be better_.

But all that? That’s definitely not what she heard.

After what felt like far too long leaving Star to stew on a misunderstanding, Marco found the words he wanted to say:

“I was fine before I saw how happy it makes you – working there, doing something that matters to you. Even if it’s something really small, you make it so… important. Before you came along, I was… just… _fine_. But you’re kind of a force of nature, huh? Just changing things wherever you go. And, yeah, to answer your question: I do want to keep my job, and I want you to keep your job, because it’s fun now with you around. And if we do something that messes up the café, it’s all over, you know?”

Star’s continued silence weighed on Marco as they paddled on.

Now he was pretty sure he’d somehow managed to say something even more stupid than before – and they were stuck out here, right in the middle of the lake. Maybe he should just jump in the water and swim the rest of the way. What was it? Like, two miles? It might be easier than enduring Star’s cold shoulder all that way.

But eventually, through a cracking voice that sounded like she was holding back a sob, Star accusingly replied, “What the heck, Marco? I didn’t know you felt like that. I just like making coffee. You make it sound like I’m some kind of hero.”

“Yeah hate to be the one to tell you this, but I’m pretty sure having a magic wand, fighting off an army of monsters, and helping people out – that definitely makes you _some kind_ of hero.”

Star laughed at herself, then thanked Marco. “It’s been… pretty lonely out here, I guess. I know I should be easier on myself, and I’m trying my best and stuff, but… it means a lot to hear you say I’m doing something right.”

When they finally caught up to the other canoe, Janna called out to roast Marco, “Hey dude, you get lost or something? We were stuck counting clouds over here.”

Marco called Janna on her bluff, “How many are there?”

“137.”

“No there aren’t. Really?”

“You’ll never know. We’re the cloud experts now, right Jackie?”

Jackie nodded, “Absolute atmospheric authorities.”

Janna continued, “If you want any info on the sky, it’ll be five bucks per fact. I’ll invoice you for that cloud count.”

“Uh huh. I think I’m good on sky facts for now, thanks,” Marco replied.

Once they landed on the beach, Janna and Star crawled out of the canoes and collapsed on the sand.

“Come on, you two,” Marco encouraged them, “We still have to set up the tents.”

“Go on without me,” Star lamented.

“Yeah, dude,” Janna agreed, “I’m good to sleep right here. For a few weeks. Just wake me up when the rescue boat comes.”

Marco probably should have expected that. He left the two exhausted newbies to recover while he and Jackie moved all the gear from the canoes over to the campsite.

But even Jackie didn’t want to set up the tents just yet.

“Come on, Marco, let’s get in the water. I’ve been dying to jump in since we got in the canoes this morning. The tents aren’t going anywhere.”

“The first rule of survival in the wilderness is _find shelter_.”

“Dude, this isn’t the wilderness. We’re just camping. Come on!”

Jackie didn’t wait for an answer. She’d already stripped down to her swimsuit and was jogging over to the beach. She leapt over Star and Janna, then dove into the depths with the confidence of a kingfisher bird.

Marco caught himself standing and staring awestruck like an idiot, thinking how cool and stunning Jackie looked in that moment, and kicking himself, knowing he’d never having the guts to say anything about it. This wasn’t like yesterday, swimming around carefree in the lake, laughing about stupid stuff like old friends. That was gone. Now he was stuck on this feeling, like he lost something important, forever.

But Star was right. He didn’t lose anything. Not yet. And the worst that could happen? They’d be friends, hang out, have a good time. Not ‘together’, but it would still be fun – if his stupid heart could handle it.

Marco abandoned the tents, took off his shirt, and followed after Jackie into the lake. She smiled a huge smile to see Marco in the water.

“Well,” he explained, “You know, that dive of yours was pretty majestic. I felt inspired.” He paused for a moment before asking, “Could you show me how to do that? I always end up awkwardly plodding into the water like a sea monster. Doesn’t feel very cool.”

“Of course, dude!” Jackie cheerfully replied. “But you can’t learn this because you want to be cool, Marco. It’s about connecting with the water. You have to let everything else go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A sincere thank you to [phantomnation](https://phantomnationdraws.tumblr.com/) and [xSugaritos](https://archiveofourown.org/users/xSugaritos) for beta reading this chapter.


	9. My Nature

Star watched from the shore as Marco fumbled over and over again while trying to dive gracefully into the lake from the shallows. It was pretty obvious he was just trying to impress Jackie – and that was exactly what Star had been hoping to see him doing on this trip. It meant Marco was actually taking all that stuff they talked about that morning seriously – that he wasn’t giving up yet. But it also meant he was absolutely not keeping his cool about anything. Poor guy. Hopefully Jackie meant what she said about liking how awkward he was.

Janna, who was still recovering on the sand next to Star, cupped her hands in front of her mouth and taunted Marco, “You look like a shipwreck out there, Diaz! What are you even doing?”

Marco yelled back, “Whatever _Janna_! At least I’m not scared of the water – like _some_ people!”

Janna smiled at Marco’s response – which Star thought was kind of a weird way to handle getting jabbed at like that.

Star had been wanting to ask Janna about the way she treated Marco for a while now, and she figured Marco was far enough away that he wouldn’t overhear, so she was probably as good a time as any.

“Hey,” she said quietly to Janna, “Why are you like that to him?”

“Like what?”

“Like… _mean_.”

Janna cocked her head to one side, “What are you talking about?” She sounded like she genuinely didn’t understand.

“What am I talking about? You’re just super mean to him all the time! Every time I see you two together, you’re picking on him about something. You try to sabotage him at the shop even though he’s always trying super hard to do everything right. And like, you’re only _here_ to watch him suffer, right? I don’t get it. Are you friends or enemies or… _what_?”

Janna gauged the distance to Marco and lowered her voice before she replied, “Come on, dude, I’m not being _mean_. It’s just to toughen him up a bit. I’ve been working on this for years now – _my greatest design made real_. You’ve seen how hopeless he is about everything. He’s always been like this. You’d get it if you saw him when we were kids. He got picked on a lot for being smart and shy and a total teacher’s pet, never stood up for himself to _anyone_ – even little kids. And he always tried to act like it didn’t bother him when he got pushed around and teased, but it did. I knew. I don’t know how the teachers never saw it, or never did anything about it. Sometimes he’d just disappear during lunch or recess and I’d find him sulking in the bushes or under the stairs or something.”

“Yeah? You weren’t the one pushing him around?”

“Once,” Janna replied with an unusual sharpness. “Just… just once.” Janna paused for a moment before she continued where she left off, “And now? He’s in college way ahead of any of us. He should be really proud of that, right? Super confident and self-assured? But it’s like he never figured himself out or something. He’s still a huge nerd, he’s still way too shy, and he still doesn’t stand up to anyone – anyone except _me_, Star. _Because_ I jab him. And sometimes, when I jab hard enough, he actually pushes back. You saw him,” Janna nodded over at Marco, who at this point was sitting down in the shallows with Jackie trying to meditate or something, “He’s actually calling me out on my crap now. What a hero.

“And once he gets enough confidence to defend himself? He’ll finally _get it_, dude. That he’s worth fighting for. That he can tell off the Boss when she’s riding him. That he can just go do something that actually _matters_ instead of wasting his time crawling up the ladder at a stupid coffee shop.”

Star’s eyes widened with realization. Bewildered, she whispered accusingly to Janna, “You _like_ him.”

“Pfft, no,” Janna scoffed, but Star gave her a skeptical look, so she continued defensively, “It’s not like that, dude, seriously. Trust me. The only people I like are super dead. Old poets and artists. Those guys knew how to party. I just… Marco’s just… he’s _good_, you know? And there aren’t a lot of good people. It sucks, but that’s how it is. We gotta protect our precious dwindling supply of redeemable men. And it sucks how he treats himself. He deserves better than he gets – he deserves better than what he _lets himself have_. And he’s only gonna get at the good stuff if he works up the guts to take it.”

“So, what?” Star gave Janna a skeptical smirk, “Don’t tell me you’re actually here to _help_ him.”

Janna replied with a defiant smile, “Are _you_ gonna tell him how much of an idiot he’s being around Jackie?”

Star didn’t respond. How could she do that to Marco? He was just trying his best. It’d break his heart to hear that, wouldn’t it?

“Yeah,” Janna huffed, “I didn’t think so.”

“I just don’t think that’s the right way—”

“You can tell, can’t you?” Janna interrupted, “If he can’t get it together, he’s gonna end up throwing away a golden opportunity here. I’m just looking out for him.”

“By insulting him.”

“It’s what friends do.”

“So… you _are_ friends then.”

“I dunno. Look, dude, it’s complicated. Don’t worry about it. Just sit back, enjoy the trip, and watch me work my magic.”

Star still wasn’t convinced about her strategy, but Janna had known Marco for pretty a long time. Maybe this was just the only way she knew how to help. Star decided to let it go and leave Janna to her twisted schemes.

After resting for a while, Star managed to drag herself off the ground. While everyone was busy, she thought this would be a good time to pop over to the café for a quick check-in. Everything was probably fine, but she was still a _little_ worried about her copy. There was no _reason_ to be worried – Star knew she was, after all, an entirely reasonable person who never made impulsive decisions with unintended consequences. Okay. Well maybe there was a little reason to be worried. And it would be pretty catastrophic if this plan fell apart. She really couldn’t handle it if she messed up and lost the café in the process.

_It’s fun now._

Star smiled. Marco’s words echoed in her mind while she sought out a secluded spot to open up a portal. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes before stepping into the Buck’s breakroom.

No smoke.

No screams.

Star opened her eyes and was startled to find that the whole breakroom was cleaner than she’d ever seen it. She peered through the window of the breakroom door to see if anything was on fire up front, but the café looked deserted, so she crouched down and snuck through the door, hiding behind the counter to talk to her duplicate.

“Hey,” she whispered to Star 2, “Everything cool here?”

“Oh hey! Yeah! Totally! All good. _Very_ good.” Coffee copies were, apparently, kind of hyperactive and fidgety. Star 2 spoke in a rapid fire of short sentences, “Dead though. Kinda boring. But everything’s like, _super_ clean now. Did you know the _ceiling_ can get dust on it? Crazy. Not on _my_ watch, though.” The copy’s eyes shot out to some invisible spot of dust in the lobby. She pointed aggressively, “Hey! Mote! I’m watching you! Get outta here!”

“2. Focus. Please. No sign of the Boss?”

Star 2 returned her attention to the real Star with a huge smile. “Nope!” she replied with an incredibly over-stated thumbs-up. “All clear.”

“Nice, nice. Well, call me if something weird happens, okay? And don’t forget to keep yourself topped up. The last thing I need is for you to evaporate away on me before the end of the day.”

“Yup. I know the drill, boss. One espresso whenever I’m low on juice. The impending and immediate threat of nonexistence is a great motivator for self-care. Highly recommended. We’ve never felt more alive.”

“Thanks for the tip,” Star waved before sneaking back to the breakroom.

She hesitated at the entrance of the portal. It would be super nice to grab a drink or some snacks. Or even just… _use a real bathroom_. But she made a promise to herself when the trip started: no non-essential portaling., and absolutely no bringing stuff back from Echo Creek – no matter how tempting it might be. She didn’t want to ruin the spirit of Marco’s ‘wilderness’ adventure.

Hands empty, conscience clear, Star returned to the island. She got her tent set up, hung up the clothes that got wet in the canoe to dry, then sat on a rock near the fire pit to think about how she was going to spend the rest of the afternoon. She usually liked to explore when she was out camping, but it’d be pretty bad if she got lost. But… wait, this was an island, right? All she had to do was walk in a straight line for long enough and she’d end up on the shore, then she could just circle around until she got back. Might be late for dinner, but she’d be fine.

Yeah, why not? She came out here to have fun.

She entered her tent to rifle through her bag for a change of clothes. Something a little better for hiking. She emptied out her bag and put back some essentials like food and first aid, tied her hair back, then exited the tent, ready for adventure. Well, as much adventure as a wooded lake island on Earth could have.

She was surprised to see Janna near standing over her disassembled tent, also wearing a change of clothes – a long-sleeved swim shirt and a pair of shorts.

“What are you up to?” Star asked. “Don’t tell me you’re going for a swim.”

“Yeah dude.”

Star put her hands on her hips, and shot Janna an accusing glare. “I thought you said you couldn’t—”

“Oh, yeah, no, I was just messing with Marco. We practically live on the ocean, dude. I’m great in the water.”

Star rolled her eyes, “Right, obviously.”

Janna smiled with anticipation, “The look on his face. It’s gonna be priceless. Wanna watch?”

Star shook her head no, “I’m gonna go check out the rest of the island.”

Janna shrugged, “Your loss, dude. Have fun out there. Watch out for ghosts.”

“I’ll let you know if I find any.”

“Yeah, _if you survive to tell the tale_.”

Star turned and waved over her shoulder. “_Bye_, Janna.”

She had no idea what to expect on the island, or even how big it was. There was a map, but it was somewhere in Marco’s stuff and she didn’t want to bother him while he was having fun out there, so she just headed in a random direction inland and tried her best to find a path between the trees.

The autumn foliage was just started to change colors out here. The smell was pretty refreshing, and the sound of freshly fallen dry leaves underfoot was pretty fun. _Crunch crunch crunch_. Star couldn’t help stomping around like a saurian monster and roaring quietly to herself while she walked through the woods.

Weird colors, though. Yellow and red? Kind of dull. Where was the pink and teal? And none of these trees seemed especially hungry. Maybe they were out of the feasting season – but this was right before winter, wasn’t it? They should be ravenous. Earth was notorious in the multiverse as a boring planet in a boring dimension – but come on, trees, put in an effort. At this rate, she wouldn’t even get a chance to use her sword for anything on this trip. Why had she even bothered packing it? She should plant some of the flowers and stuff she brought over from Mewni, release a few wild animals, add a little color and excitement to the forests around here.

The trees gradually thinned out and gave way to a rocky cliff. Star had already made it to the other side of the _apparently pretty small_ island. She made her way over to the edge of the cliff and sat down to enjoy a snack in celebration of her successful expedition. The lake stretched out in front of her. A thin line of trees marked the far shore. A few wooded islands interrupted the horizon, and the lake reflected what were _supposedly_ 137 clouds – according to Janna.

“No, there’s definitely not that many,” Star muttered to herself, before she started counting the shifting shapes in the sky for herself.

She’d only tallied up a few dozen before something distracted her – a whisper in the breeze. It sounded like words, but Star couldn’t put the sounds together into a sentence. Maybe someone was in trouble? It sounded like it was coming from further up the shore along the cliff, so Star packed up her stuff and started making her way towards the sound.

As she got closer, the words started coming through clearly, and the whisper took on more of a cold shrieking tone.

_You can’t do this…_

_Someone…_

_Please…_

Each utterance echoed in Star’s ears, like they were being screamed across a great plain in a snowstorm, but the sensation was so personal that Star could practically feel the speaker’s lips brushing against her ears.

“Okay, so, this is definitely not normal,” Star told herself, like she needed to be reminded. And maybe she did, because despite the uneasiness in her guts, she continued creeping along the tall cliff towards the source of the whispers.

As she rounded a particularly sharp corner, another island suddenly came into view. It was close. Really close. A super tall tree could bridge the gap if it fell over.

As she went on, she found that someone had built a bridge. Well. Maybe calling it a bridge was a little generous. Someone had stretched a rope across the gap, and then run a second rope a few feet above that. Someone could probably shimmy across, but it definitely wasn’t made for walking. Even from the edge of the cliff, Star could see frayed strands peeling off along the whole the length of cord. She wondered if it could actually support someone’s weight.

As she approached the bridge, planning to test the strength of the ropes with a good tug, a blast of cold air came off the lake. In the static of rustling leaves, Star could swear she heard a pathetic, desperate scream. A girl. Crying.

_Don’t you dare! Stop! Stop!!_

If those echoey screams were coming from that other island, Star had to do something. Like, _now_. She dropped her bag and grabbed onto the rope bridge without hesitation, scuttling across as quickly as she could manage.

She was halfway there before she thought to look down. It was… pretty far. Sharp rocks. Rough water. Falling was not a great idea.

The stiff, frayed rope felt like brambles in her hands, but she didn’t have any choice except to hold on as tightly as she could to keep her balance in the wind – which was coming off the lake a lot stronger than it had been all day. She had to come to a full stop a couple times along the way when the breeze picked up, tossing her hair wildly into her face and swaying the bridge wildly back and forth. But after pushing through it all, she managed to get to the other side – hands red and stinging from the roughness of the cord. Star looked back across to where she’d come from and gave herself a mental pat on the back for making it across.

The desperate pleas that brought her over to the spooky island in the first place had gone quiet. Star wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a very, very bad thing. She tried to keep her hopes up that the scared girl was fine, that she’d come out on top of whatever was going on there, but she still moved with a sense of urgency while she searched for the source of the sound.

Star hurried down what seemed to be the only path on the little island. The trees here were sickly. Most had bare branches and peeling bark. Star brushed aside abandoned spider webs as she walked. Which meant… no one had walked this way in a while? But where else could that voice have been calling from?

Star made it to the other side of the island in less than a minute. Really, there wasn’t much of an island to search at all. While she was walking, she was able to see the entire circumference of the plateau from the center of the wooded area, and there wasn’t any sign of anyone here. So… where did the whispers on the wind come from?

She reluctantly peered over the cliffside into the water, half expecting to see a couple of bodies smashed on the rocks there, but all she could see was choppy water lapping at the stony shore below.

Star backtracked toward the bridge again, and this time she spotted a little tower of rocks some distance off the path. They seemed to be stacked in the middle of an old fire pit.

The air turned cool as she approached. A chill ran up her spine, and a faint whisper tickled her ear.

_Don’t leave me._

Star couldn’t pretend this wasn’t spooky, but after she’d come this far, there was no turning back now.

And even though Star was pretty sure that she was just imagining the voice, she couldn’t help feeling like Janna’s jokes and ghost stories were maybe, possibly, just a little more serious than Star had thought. What was she saying last night? A serial killer? Bodies hidden on the islands? There was no way she was being serious, though. Janna was just trying to scare them, wasn’t she? Just being lazy and trying to avoid coming out on the lake?

Star reached out to brush away some dirt from the top of the rock tower, but before she could touch it, something shiny fell into the ashes of the fire pit.

She picked up the trinket and blew the dust off of it. A silver necklace. There was a simple charm dangling from it – one half of a heart. Probably part of a set. The back had initials embossed in it, but they’d been defaced and were unreadable now.

“Alright, spooky pendant. You cursed?” Star asked the necklace, “Gonna scream at me and give me bad dreams? Or make my phone bleed or something?”

No response. No whispers. It didn’t _feel_ arcane. It _could_ just be a regular old necklace. Considering the initials on the back were scratched out, maybe it was just all that was left of a pyre to a bad relationship? Star had definitely done worse after a messy breakup with her ex.

Well, Star figured that if it wasn’t cursed, she might as well take it with her to have something to show for her adventure. Not like it would be missed out here on this inaccessible little outcrop in the middle of nowhere, right?

And a moment later, without a thought, the chain was on her neck.

Did… she… just…? She didn’t remember fastening the clasp at all. Why would she do that?

She was about to take it off, but when she touched the pendant with the tip of her finger… it felt _safe_ there. Like it belonged there.

After giving the dead island another round of searching for anything interesting, Star decided it was probably time to give up. Food would probably be ready soon, and it’d be nice to sit down and decompress after all this.

Star braced herself for the rough bridge crossing. But she’d done it once, and it wasn’t that bad, so it should be a cakewalk this time.

She was nearly to the other side of the gap when things went very wrong.

The wind was stronger this time. A lot stronger. The elastic holding her ponytail together snapped, and her hair flew around wildly, blinding her and getting tangled with the bridge. The ropes vibrated and swayed out of sync with each other, making it super hard to hold on. And as if all that wasn’t bad enough, right when she was recovering from nearly losing her footing because of a stiff gale, something suddenly just gave out in her back. It felt like someone had put a fifty-pound weight on her shoulders or something. Whatever it was, it threw her completely off balance. The frayed ends of the handrail rope cut her palms as her hands were torn away from it, and the rope she was standing on disappeared from beneath her feet. For a terrifying moment, all she could see was a sky with 137 clouds in it.

Then there was a sharp cutting pain that ripped along the inside of her thigh all the way down to her knee – harsh enough that it made her inhale a hiss of pain.

She’d managed to catch onto the foot rope by the crook of her knee, and was now dangling upside-down over some very angry looking rocks and water – which was a relief, all things considered. Better a cut up leg than a busted _everything_.

A quick assessment of the situation made it pretty obvious that there was no way she’d be able to reach up and grab the handrail rope, so all she could do was slowly scale the foot rope towards her goal – a process that was not made any easier by that sudden and apparently lingering weakness in her shoulders that had gotten her into this precarious position in the first place.

Even in the chilly wind, sweat dripped from Star’s brow and into her eyes while she held on for dear life. She gathered her breath and her strength up for every lunge forward, and tried to grit her teeth to bare the pain of dragging her bare legs along the rough rope.

When she finally made it back to solid ground, Star collapsed on the ground beside her discarded backpack. She took stock of her wounds – her hands and legs were totally scraped up. She did her best to rinse out the cuts with water from her canteen and put some salve on the wounds, but she’d need to get back to camp to deal with it properly.

Not like suffering a few scrapes was the worst thing she’d ever had to deal with out on an adventure, though. This was actually pretty tame compared to some of the trouble she used to get up to with her dad in the wilds of Mewni. Like that one time they got captured by that family of hungry slime savages and nearly got turned into stew. That was almost pretty darn bad. Lucky for Star, her dad hadn’t bathed in well over a week. He tasted so bad the savages’ gooey broth was ruined and they just let the two of them go free – slimy, slightly scalded, but nothing a nice Butterfly Café _Warrior Special_ couldn’t fix up.

She considered popping back to Buck’s for a healing drink, but she remembered her promise to herself to keep this camping trip legit. This wasn’t serious. She could deal with it for now.

It was nice to get into trouble a bit, honestly. It had been so long since Star had gotten to do anything exciting. Maybe she could make some more time to get out into the wilderness once she got back to Echo Creek. Maybe Marco could spare a weekend once in a while to go visit another dimension with her. What else was he doing with his time? _Studying_? She was pretty sure she could make a convincing case that studying was a boring waste of time, since he was so smart that he obviously didn’t even need to study.

While Star was imagining how incredibly persuasive her argument would be, she really started feeling the weight of her bag – her _nearly empty_ bag. Had all that bridge crossing really burnt her out that badly? Or the paddling? She wasn’t normally this easily exhausted.

Then, in a moment of distracted thought, Star’s weight suddenly shifted sideways as her feet slipped on a mossy log. Her head slammed right into the trunk of a tree, and she was on the ground, once again unwillingly staring at the sky… which… had… _some number_ of clouds in it… how many was it again? Like, a lot, right?

While Star was laying there, dazed and sore, trying to remember how high numbers could get, she gingerly touched her skull and winced in pain when she located the bump left behind by the tree’s violent assault.

This return trip was getting worse with every step, she thought to herself. But she wasn’t about to be beaten by some stupid boring Earth plant.

When she got back to her feet, she kicked the base of the tree that got her, then tried to intimidate the rest of the woods, “Any of you try something like that again and I’ll be back here with an ax _so_ fast.”

A twig fell onto her head from the branches of the tree she just kicked, causing her to spastically bat at the air in her defense. When she’d regained her composure, she turned and pointed aggressively at the tree that was now her greatest enemy.

“Oh ho _ho_, you’ve done it now. You’re on the _list_, buddy. I’ll be back for you.”

She took out her knife and cut her initials into the bark of the tree to mark it for doom, then backed away from the trunk, giving it a threatening death glare until it was out of sight.

“The nerve of these trees,” she mumbled to herself, stumbling her way back through the woods.

She was absolutely cooked by the time she got back to the campsite, but she had managed to keep herself in one piece, despite getting a little lost and tripping a few more times than she would ever admit to anyone on the way back. She threw her bag on the ground outside her tent before collapsing on her back near the fire pit with a huge sigh of relief.

Marco and Jackie were there, but they barely looked up when they said hi. They were both distracted, smiling and working together on preparing ingredients for dinner. Janna was nowhere to be seen.

Star joked, “Did she drown?”

Marco, exasperated, replied, “Star, she was lying the whole time. She can swim laps around me.”

“Hey, come on,” Jackie pointed out, “You definitely should’ve known she was lying, Marco.”

Jackie was right, Star mused to herself, he really should know better by now. When she thought about it, there probably weren’t even 137 clouds in the sky at any point that day. She’d been living a lie.

For a moment, it looked like Marco was ready to present a defense of his misguided faith in Janna, but he stopped everything when he got a better look at Star.

“Star!” He jumped to his feet and rushed over, “What happened to you? Why are your legs all cut up?” He hovered over her, unsure what to do, clutching his hair anxiously.

Star raised her palms in the air to show off, “Got my hands too.”

“Okay! That’s it! I’m getting you some antibiotic ointment!”

Marco blindly pulled a tube of ointment and some kind of acrid-smelling, individually-wrapped cloth from his fanny pack, then directed Star to keep her palms up while he cleaned up the wounds.

Star winced a bit. Whatever was in that gauze, it stung.

Jackie crouched near Star to look at her scrapes and asked, “Did you win?”

“Win what?”

“The fight. With whatever did that,” Jackie pointed to the long scrape on Star’s leg.

“Oh. Kind of? It was just some rope.” Star thought about it for a moment, “I guess I beat it, yeah.”

Marco raised an eyebrow, “Where did you find rope out here? And how did it cut you up like that?”

Star didn’t feel like explaining the whole story right now. She was so drained. Her shoulders wouldn’t stop aching, her palms felt like they were on fire, and her head was still sore and throbbing from smashing into that tree.

She just kind of waved her hand in the air and tried to dismiss it, “There was a bridge and some crazy wind and a weird island. I’ll tell you later. I’m pretty tired. My whole body hurts. I just want to lie down and sink into the earth.”

Jackie perked up at that, “Oh, you want a massage? I’m really good.”

Star couldn’t imagine anything that could take away the aches and fatigue that were weighing her down. It felt like a bag of sand was tied to her chest. But she wasn’t about to say no to a free massage. The last time she got a shoulder rub was when she pleaded with Tom to give her one after a long shift at the family café. He wasn’t super good at it, but his hands were warm. Star hated to admit it, but she did kind of miss that – and only that – about him. That warm touch.

Jackie got Star to sit up, then kneeled behind her. She bundled up Star’s hair and flipped it over Star’s shoulder, then she gently probed Star’s muscles like she was looking for something. And whatever she was looking for, she found it.

“Ah ha. Here we go. The very source of your distress, Star Butterfly. You’ve got some tension here,” Jackie pressed her fingers into a tender spot on Star’s neck, and Star just melted as a wave of relief pulsed through her body.

“Oh that… yeah that is definitely the spot.”

Star leaned her weight into Jackie’s hands and completely lost track of time and her surroundings. Her mind got fuzzy, and all her thoughts emptied out to make room for the overwhelming sense of calm from all that pain being scrubbed away.

Star was vaguely aware that Jackie’s hands were shifting their focus. Now on her neck. Now her upper arms. Now under her shoulder blades. And now—

“Ah!” Star lurched forward reflexively, nearly toppling over, “Too far!”

“Oh, sorry!” Jackie exclaimed, “You okay? Sensitive back?”

“What? No. You just… you got my wings.”

“Your _what_?”

“… My wings?” Star looked back and saw Jackie’s expression – truly the look of someone who had never gone through or even _heard of_ mewberty, which was… wow. Star really did not want to have to explain all that stuff to a grown woman right now. “Uh. You know what, never mind. You’ll understand when you’re older.”

Jackie laughed at that, and playfully replied, “Alright, Star Butterfly. I’m sure all the mysteries of cute girls from space and their secret little wings will become clear in time.”

Star huffed a bit at that, “They’re not _secret_, they’re just… off limits.” Star patted her neck and shoulders, “Let’s just stay around here, okay?”

“Yeah that’s fine! Sorry, I had no idea you had a weak spot there.” Jackie coaxed Star back and returned to dutifully working the stress out of Star’s neck muscles. After a few more minutes, she stopped and asked Star if it was helping at all.

Star rolled her shoulders and squeezed the muscles there with her hand. She did feel a _little_ better, but there was just a lot of soreness. She was right to think that a little massage wasn’t going to be enough.

“Still a bit achy,” Star said, “But it’s fine, you can stop if you want.”

“Oh no, no problem! I love giving massages. It’s nice making people feel better, you know?”

Star smiled at that, “Yeah, it is.”

Jackie continued, more gently now. While she worked, she spoke to Star with a tone of concern, “You know if you’re still sore, you might actually have an injury or something. Maybe you pulled a muscle?”

Star thought back to her trials on the bridge. She was thrown off pretty hard, and the climb back was really taxing on her, but she didn’t feel like she had over-extended herself. She didn’t think her muscles were torn, but… maybe?

While she was trying to remember something that could’ve caused a proper injury, Janna came back from the beach, chaotically tussling her hair with a towel.

“What’s up, nerds?” Janna asked, then she stopped short when she saw Star and Jackie. “Star. Are you kidding me? What were we _just_ talking about?”

“What?” Star had no idea what Janna meant. Had she done something wrong?

Janna pointed, “What is that _thing_ on your back, dude?”

Star looked back at Jackie, then at Janna again, “That’s… Jackie? Also, _rude_?”

“Not _Jackie_! The ghost! The ghost that’s… gnawing… on you…” Janna’s emphatic bewilderment sunk into a monotone of disappointment, “You can’t see it, can you?”

“See _what_? Are you messing with me?”

Janna threw her towel on a nearby branch to dry, then walked over to her bag and started digging through it, leaving all sorts of weird items on the ground around her.

Marco had looked up from his cooking when Janna started making a fuss. His eyes scanned the air behind Star, a puzzled look on his face, and when Star looked at him to confirm if anything was there, he shrugged that he couldn’t see anything either.

Janna triumphantly held up a notebook. She stood in front of Star and flipped it open to a section labelled ‘spooky stuff’. Janna pointed to a page with a description and drawing of what was apparently called a _wight_. The description said that a wight was…

_An unfortunate spirit. Spiteful, hungry, confused. They do not seek peace or revenge – only the suffering of others._

The sketch next to the blurb was of a vaguely humanoid creature – except where its face should be, there was only a gaping map full of jagged, disorderly teeth. Its hands had only three fingers with long black claws. Its body was spindly, and the overall impression Star got was that this was a creature that was both sickly and cruel.

And Janna was trying to convince Star that… this… thing…

“You picked up a stowaway on your hike, dude,” Janna said, jabbing at the empty air behind Star for emphasis. “Pretty sure I told you to watch out for ghosts.”

“You were _serious_!?” Star tossed the notebook aside, stood up fast, and swatted at her back and shoulders trying to get rid of the wight – but it was pointless to try. She couldn’t feel it or see it no matter how fast she spun around or how wildly she flailed her hands.

While she was freaking out, Star spotted Marco out of the corner of her eye. He picked up the discarded notebook and was scanning through the pages. Maybe he thought he could find something to help? But really, Star had to count on Janna here – who was apparently _actually_ an expert on ghosts and not just the queen of bluffs and lies.

And Star had to admit, unbelievable as she wanted it to be, it made sense. Boy, did it all make sense now. The weight on her back, the exhaustion, the accidents. The weird voice? The dead, empty island?

The necklace.

Star stopped flailing and brought her hand up to her chest to hold the pendant delicately between her fingers. Why had she even taken this thing with her? She really couldn’t think of what was going through her head when she put it on. She just kind of… did it. Was that part of the curse? Bad decision making? _Compulsion_? Because that would be totally unfair, considering Star was only there in the first place to try to help out that distressed voice she heard on the wind.

She tried to rip the necklace clean off her neck, but the chain was too strong, so she desperately tried to get the clasp undone. She fumbled frustratedly with the mechanism, but her fingers kept slipping off.

While she was struggling with it, she pleaded with Janna, “Why didn’t you tell me you were serious!? Can you get rid of it? _Please_ tell me you can get rid of it.”

“Chill, dude,” Janna said, holding Star still. She leaned in to examine the necklace, careful not to touch it herself. She picked up a twig from the ground and used it to flip the pendant over to continue her examination.

Star asked, impatient, still trying to get the clasp undone, “Well? Is it bad?”

Janna sucked air between her teeth and let out a reluctant, “Yyyyyeah, it’s kinda bad. That thing’s definitely cursed. No point trying to get it off.”

But Star wasn’t ready to give up yet. She was so close.

“How about I just keep trying anyways?” Star said, “Just for fun.”

So… close. If only it would just… stop… _slipping_…

“Here,” Jackie calmly offered her hands to help, taking Star’s place working on the clasp.

Star submitted to Jackie’s assistance, trying and failing to wait calmly for Jackie to finish. She felt like she was getting a splinter taken out by her mom or something. But instead of the release from her suffering that was the usual reward for sitting still and quiet under a pair of tweezers, Star’s good behavior was only rewarded with disappointment as Jackie apologetically admitted defeat.

“It just won’t move. Marco, can you break this? Do you have cutters or something?”

“Oh uh. No cutters, but I can try.” Marco dropped the notebook and hurried over. He stood behind Star and grabbed the chain firmly in both hands, then groaned with a solid effort to tear it apart.

Janna had given up on trying to coach them, and had started munching on the uncooked ingredients for their meal. Mouth full, she matter-of-factly reminded them, “It’s useless. You can’t break spectral bonds, dude.” She swallowed her food and continued, “Only way is to give it to someone else. Or get rid of the wight. The seal’s fueled by her anger or whatever. What’d you do to her, anyways, Star? Dig up her grave or something?”

Star threw her arms in the air, “I don’t know! I heard someone crying for help, so I went looking for her, and when I got there, no one was around! There was a tower of rocks in a pile of ashes – and this necklace. I thought it was just a cool little treasure, you know? I didn’t think anyone would miss it.”

“Huh. The necklace was calling you?”

“I guess?”

“Maybe it wanted to be found, to be moved somewhere.”

Star gave up and slumped back on the ground by the fire pit. If she couldn’t see this thing and it wasn’t going away, she’d just have to make peace with being in pain for however long this took to sort out.

“You know, if she wanted a lift,” Star complained, “She could have just _asked_ instead of trying to mess me up like this.”

Marco offered an idea, “Maybe it’s like the scorpion on the frog’s back?”

Star raised an eyebrow, “Huh?” She had no idea what Marco was talking about.

“It’s a story about a scorpion that wants to cross a river. It asks a frog for a ride, and then halfway across the water it stings the frog’s back and they both drown. It explains itself to the frog by saying, ‘It’s my nature to sting things.’”

Jackie continued Marco’s train of thought, “Ohhh, so you’re thinking the spirit wants to go somewhere, but it doesn’t know how to stop hurting people, so… Star’s just… stuck suffering until they get there?”

Marco nodded and turned to the expert, “Janna?”

Janna shrugged, “Sure dude, maybe.”

“So, I just have to take her where she wants to go and she’ll go away?” Star asked, hopeful. She’d be happy to take this thing wherever it wanted to go if it meant she could free herself from this suffering.

“Oh, no dude, don’t even worry about that. I’ve got some tricks I can try. Listen, I’ll get you sorted out after we eat. I worked up an appetite after putting Marco to shame in the water all day.”

“We weren’t competing!”

Star could hear Jackie behind her stifling a laugh.

Janna continued taunting Marco, “Spoken like the guy who came in last place every contest.”

“Not _every_ contest,” Marco protested. “I’m a deeper diver than you.”

Janna smirked triumphantly, “So we _were_ competing, huh Diaz?”

Marco shooed Janna away from his carefully organized (and now entirely disorganized) dinner preparations, “Alright, that’s it, time for you to get out of the kitchen.”

“Whatever, _chef_. I’ll be in my tent doing ghost research. Don’t bug me until the food’s ready.” Janna went to enter her tent, but realized she’d never set it up when they landed. She grumbled a bit while she put it together, then when it was eventually done, she disappeared inside.

After Janna left, Star tried her best to stick around with the other two, but she could barely keep her eyes open. Every time Marco or Jackie said something, she had to ask them to repeat it. Eventually she gave up on being social and retired to her sleeping bag. She didn’t even remember her head hitting the pillow. She was just out.

_Star._

Someone was calling her.

_Don’t leave me. Please don’t—_

“Hey Star, you alright in there?” Marco was trying to get her attention from outside the tent.

Star replied groggily, “‘m sleepin’ whad’ya wan’?”

“Sorry, I know you’re tired. There’s food. You can come get it whenever, but uh, I can only keep Janna away from it for so long.”

Star rubbed her eyes and stretched a bit. Still sore. Still tired. But definitely hungry enough to drag herself out of bed.

“I’ll fight her if she eats my food, Marco. You tell her.”

“Yeah, she doesn’t look scared, you should probably hurry. She’s got a thing set up for your ghost problem too. A _séance_ or something?”

Janna called from the fire pit, “It’s not a séance, you clown! I’m not some hack psychic!”

Marco sighed, “Anyways, come out soon if you’re up for it. She wants to get started.”

“Better hurry up Star,” Janna continued, “The moon and Venus won’t stay aligned for long!”

Star could barely hear Jackie asking Janna if she knew a lot about astronomy and heard Janna reply no before their conversation got too quiet to follow.

When Star got her bearings, she was disappointed to find that she’d let herself fall asleep in the same clothes she went hiking in. She took a minute to groan through the struggle of changing into some warm pants, a light shirt, and a sweater, then she went out into the evening to get some food, and hopefully – if Janna could pull through – some kind of cure for this curse.

Twice-baked potatoes tonight. Cheese, onions, and enough spice to give it a nice kick. Marco was pretty good at this stuff. Star decided she’d have to come up with more excuses to eat his food when this trip was over. Maybe she could start withholding his favorite specialty lattes in exchange for a home-made lunch or something.

Marco watched Star anxiously while she took the first bite, then immediately burst out with an apologetic rant, “It’s terrible, isn’t it? I really messed it up, I’m so sorry. It’s just, I was stressed about this ghost thing, and half the ingredients got eaten before I even started,” Marco glared at Janna, “And _someone_ decided to pour all our salt all over the ground.”

“It’s for the ritual, dingus,” Janna retorted.

“You couldn’t have left me _one tablespoon_ of salt? Food is medicine too, you know.”

Star interrupted Marco’s tirade, “It tastes great, don’t worry.”

“You’re not just saying that?”

“Marco, I love you, but I don’t have the energy to pat your head today, okay? Please just trust me when I say your food is amazing.”

Marco relented and accepted Star’s compliment with a quiet thank you.

Janna, apparently pretty eager to get started, didn’t even wait for Star to finish before she started explaining what the plan was.

“Sit here,” Janna said, pointing to a white circle on the ground. Star’s circle was one of a set of four, each connected by a larger circumference that ran around the fire pit. Each line of the design was decorated with salt runes Star had only ever seen before in some of the indecipherable pages in the Multilingual Pamphlet of Spells. “I’ve got some chants that should bring the spirit out, then we’ll go from there.”

“‘Go from there?’”

“Yeah like, destroy it, banish it if it can’t be destroyed, cripple it if it can’t be banished. I’ve got a whole flow chart if you—”

“—Can’t we talk to her first?”

“Um. Why? It’s wild. I don’t think it can even understand what we’re saying.” Janna turned her gaze to the air behind Star – to the spirit – and spoke to it like it was a puppy dog, “No you can’t, can you? Just a dumb old ghosty, aren’t you? Yes you are. _Yes you are_.”

“Janna she was hurt, and scared. She was calling me.”

“That’s just a thing they do. It’s like a bird chirping. It doesn’t mean anything.”

“She just… she sounded…”

“You have to trust me here, dude. It’s going to worm its way into your head if you let it. You’ve never seen a guy with a wight all tangled up in his mind, but it’s not pretty. You get all crazy and obsessed, and you’re in constant agony, and you start getting it in your head that the only way to feel better is making everyone around you suffer too. It’s brutal. The sooner we deal with this, the better.”

Star didn’t like the idea of turning into a deranged psychopath, but she also wasn’t super on board with the idea of hurting this dead girl. But she couldn’t really think of anything else. Janna was the only one who knew anything about spirits. Or… was there someone else? No. No that was… a last resort.

Janna seated Marco and Jackie in the two circles adjacent to Star’s, then sat herself down across the fire from Star in her own circle. She had a few books opened up on a rock in front of her. While she was flipping through the pages, Marco was getting kind of fidgety.

“Hey,” he asked, “What exactly do you need me and Jackie for here?”

“Need a buffer.”

“For what?”

Janna sighed, clearly not enthused about having to explain her art, “Spiritual feedback. If it was just me and Star, I’d probably get cooked when the sparks start flying. But with three of us, it’ll be less _burny_ and more just _uncomfortable_. You’re good being a little uncomfortable to save your beloved and invaluable subordinate from extremely probable doom, right Diaz?”

“I’m fine with it, but do you really need Jackie?”

Jackie jumped in before Janna could reply, “It’s fine, Marco, I want to help. Really.”

Star was with Marco. It didn’t seem fair. “Jackie you really don’t… You barely know me.”

“Well, Star Butterfly,” Jackie smiled, “I know you well enough to suspect it’d be worth a little pain to change that.”

Star was a little taken aback by the warmth in Jackie’s eyes, so she could only reply with a humble thank you.

“Alright, we done with the heroic sacrifice stuff?” Janna asked impatiently, “Or do you guys want to waste some more time?”

After a chorus of ‘go aheads’, Janna got started with the ritual. She ran her finger over the pages of her books as she uttered the unrecognizable words of the incantation. As she chanted, Star marveled at the grains of salt that made up the magic circle. They started glowing and floating gently into the air, forming a shallow barrier around the group. She noticed for the first time that there was another circle around the fire, and as the glowing barrier rose around it, the flame changed from an orange hue to a purplish blue. It seemed like the rest of the world around them went pitch black. There was only this magic circle left in the universe.

The charm on the necklace started getting hot on Star’s chest. Star could hear whispers again. Fierce whispers. Spitting and hissing, and… pleading.

_After all these years…_

_After everything I’ve done for you…_

_Everything we’ve done together…_

_How dare you…_

_How dare you…_

_HowdareyouhowdareyouHOWDAREYOU!_

A thin trail of glowing white smoke snaked its way from the pendant towards the center of the strange fire, causing the flames to rise higher in the air. Janna had a look of smug satisfaction on her face while she continued her incantation, so Star could only assume the process was working.

The whispers Star had been hearing suddenly started coming from somewhere outside her head. They were wailing out of the fire. Even Marco and Jackie seemed to be able to hear them now.

“How daaaaaaaare you! You coward! You fake! You betrayer!” the voice called out, hurt, angry.

In the flames, Star saw something take shape. A mouth full of teeth. Long claws. Slender features. The wight. She could see it. And the thing looked so wretched, so pathetic, Star couldn’t help but feel sorry for the spirit. Whatever happened to her when she was alive, she couldn’t have deserved this.

Janna spoke confidently, “Alright, wight. Hope you’re ready for oblivion.”

And she was about to dive into another incantation, but Star cut her off.

“—Wait! Wait. Can we… can it understand us?” Star asked Janna, then she turned to the spirit before Janna could answer, “Do you understand us?”

The wight stared menacingly at Star while it replied. “Understand. I don’t understand. _I don’t understand_,” it wailed in agony. “How could you do this to me!?”

Star continued trying to talk to the raging spirit, “I don’t know what I did! Can you just tell me what happened?”

Janna interrupted, “Star it can’t understand you, it’s just echoes and broken memories.”

“Well I want to know what happened to her! Maybe we don’t have to destroy her. Maybe there’s something else we can do.” Star didn’t wait for Janna to try to dissuade her. She knew what she wanted. She wasn’t going to just give up on this girl. “What happened to you Who are you? What’s your name? Do you remember anything?”

“Alouette. Alouette!” the spirit howled her name, then started sobbing, “So pretty. So pretty, they said. And he threw it away. Plucked it clean and tore it apart and threw it away like nothing. After everything. After all those years. How _dare_ you! Who are you? Nothing! Fake! Lies! You’re NOTHING!!”

The fire flared high, and the salt along the ground crackled with electricity. Sparks jumped into the air, one of them snapping at Marco’s leg, causing him to yelp in pain and curl up tighter inside the circle.

“Hey Star, can you maybe try to _not_ make the angry spirit angrier?” he pleaded.

“Sorry! I’m not trying to!”

Janna chimed in, “This is just going to get worse the longer we keep going, Star! Just let me get rid of it!”

“No! Not yet!” Star addressed Alouette, “What do you want? Do you want to go somewhere? Do you need to find this guy who hurt you? What?”

“Want. Want. Wanted. I just wanted to be wanted. I want to be wanted again.”

“By who?”

“_Alex_.” The voice hissed and spat, “Alexander. What a joke. How dare you. Coward. Toss me aside. I am _yours_, Alex. You need me. _You need me_. You’re nothing without me – not Alex, not anything. Just _nothing_. Fake. Fake! Liar! THIEF! HOW DARE YOU!!”

The flame danced violently, and sparks exploded from the magic circle again. All four of them yelped in pain as the spectral energy jumped to their skin. The barrier of suspended salt crystals was getting patchy and faltering.

Janna shut Star down, “That’s it, dude! We can’t keep doing this! I’m putting this thing down!”

Star screamed back, “No! Don’t you dare! Janna! JANNA!!”

But Janna had already started whatever incantation she had prepared to destroy the wight.

Star was panicking. She couldn’t just… This spirit – Alouette – she real, she had to be real. She was in so much pain, she didn’t deserve to be erased. She didn’t deserve this.

The flame changed color again – now a bright, pale golden hue. Alouette wailed and hissed in pain as Janna continued. The salt barrier was erupting with massive arcs of electricity, all of it jumping to the spirit now.

Star grasped the spirit’s pendant in her fist, shouted an apology to Janna, then stood up and kicked the salt barrier out of its careful formation and charged at Janna to get her to stop.

But she didn’t have to assault her friend. As the barrier was broken, the lightshow and the lamentations of the spirit disappeared in an instant, like they was never there. The campfire was orange and calm. The salt was dull and white. And her friends stared at her in disbelief.

“I’m sorry,” Star tried to preempt their judgment. “I just… I’m sorry. I’ll figure this out on my own.”

Then she hurried to her tent and zippered the door before anyone could say anything. Marco tried to coax her out, but she just curled up in her sleeping bag and ignored him. She couldn’t face them right now. Not after she was so selfish. Not after they put themselves at risk for her sake like that. But she couldn’t just give up on this girl.

She clutched the pendant firmly and made a silent promise to the spirit. She’d carry it. Wherever it needed to go, she’d bear it. But first she needed to figure out where it wanted to go. And to do that, she’d need someone who could talk to the spirit – someone who could _really_ talk to her.

Star hated where this was going, but if she couldn’t convince Janna to help her on her terms, then she wouldn’t have any choice. It’d have to be _him_. No one would know how to talk to the dead better than the heir of the Underworld. And he owed her after how their last interaction went down. Even he knew it.

She pulled out her phone and scrolled through her old messages. There he was. 💀🤢👿 _Tom the Colossal Douchebag_ 👿🤢💀. His last few dozen messages were variations on an apology – but the kind of apology that made her the villain somehow. Her thumbs hovered over the keyboard, but she couldn’t bring herself to talk to him right now. Maybe tomorrow. Tonight she just needed to think, sort herself out, and get some rest.

Star did her best to ignore the conversation outside, but she couldn’t help overhearing her name here and there. She wished her exhaustion would just drag her into a merciful sleep, but her body was too sore and her mind was too full of static. No matter how she flopped her body around on the floor of her tent, she couldn’t find any position that felt comfortable.

Eventually, she heard the others says their goodnights and retire to their tents. The fire was put out with a sputtering hiss, and the canopy of Star’s tent went dark. Finally, she could sleep.

But sleep never came.

Star still couldn’t see her, but she knew the spirit was probably gnawing on her bones. She felt the occasional pulse of pain ripple through her body. She started counting the waves and got one hundred and thirty-seven by the time the first hint of sunlight started coloring the sky. What a sick joke.

Star heard someone get out of their tent and head down to the water. Probably Marco. He seemed like sunrise kind of guy. Star figured it’d be nice to talk to him alone about all this. He’d probably have some good advice. She could barely keep her mind straight right now and she could really use someone to bounce her thoughts off of.

She put on a loose sweater and some slacks, then went down to the beach.

But it wasn’t Marco. Jackie was out for a morning swim.

Star didn’t really want to bother Jackie with her troubles, so she tried to sneak back to the campsite, but it was too late. Jackie called out to Star and swam back to shore.

“Hey,” Jackie greeted Star while toweling off, “You’re up early.”

“Ha, yeah, I wish. More like staying up late.”

“Aw, really? That’s brutal. You doing okay? You uh… you kinda look like you got hit by a truck.”

“Yeah,” Star lied. She was so tired, her mind was so fuzzy, and Jackie had a look in her eyes like she really wanted to know. After a moment of hesitation, Star changed her answer, “No. I’m feeling pretty messed up, actually.”

“Yeah I bet. Well, come dip your toes in the water, maybe that’ll help you relax a bit.”

Couldn’t hurt, Star figured.

She found a nice big rock to sit on, rolled up the cuffs of her pants, and let her feet dangle down into the water. The surface of the lake gently lapped at her ankles and sent the occasional splash of water up her leg. She was staring with dull eyes at the pink horizon when she realized that it hit her differently today. It was like something new was there. The lake was just water and trees before, but now there was a profound peace in the stillness of it all – something Marco had woke her up to while she was struggling with the canoe yesterday. And Jackie was right, it didn’t fix anything that was going on or ease her pain, but it did help her relax.

Jackie sat down beside Star and stared out at the water too, a dumb smile on her face. Star enjoyed how chill Jackie was in general, but right now in particular it was kind of nice to be near someone who was so at peace.

“You really love the water, huh?” Star asked lazily.

“Oh, yeah dude. I don’t know how anyone could feel anything but awe looking at a lake.”

Star watched Jackie as she spoke. Drops of water fell from the tips of her wavy hair. One of them hit Jackie’s leg and reminded her to finish drying off her hair.

She continued speaking while she tousled her head with the towel, “Like seriously, even if you ignore how amazing it is that water’s _everywhere_ and it connects _everyone_ and nothing on Earth would be alive without it, there’s just this _feeling_ when you’re in it, surrounded by it, wrapped in it.” Jackie let go of the towel and clasped her hands together for emphasis, “It’s this unstoppable force of nature. It holds you in its grasp and it could destroy you at any moment, but if you treat it with respect and care, it supports you and nurtures you and pushes you forward.”

She paused, maybe waiting for Star to say something, but from the fog in Star’s mind, she was barely keeping up with Jackie’s words right now.

After a moment of thought, Jackie leaned back on the rock, turned her head to the sky, and closed her eyes. She seemed to be pulling up a memory in her mind’s eye. “When the ocean hugs you in its ebb and flow, when it throws you around in its violent waves – I dunno, it’s hard to describe I guess, but I just don’t think there’s any other feeling like that in the world. But this,” Jackie opened her eyes and pointed to the lake, “The personality of the water out here – this quiet, tender side you see in the lake – you never see that out on the coast, but it’s really peaceful, and it’s really special to be out here to see it.” Jackie paused for a moment before she added, “Thanks for inviting me along with you guys.”

Star was trying to listen, but the pain in her shoulders was distracting her, so she was only vaguely aware of all the stuff Jackie was saying. It sounded nice, though. Oh wait was there was a thank you in there?

“No problem,” Star replied in a tired voice. She squeezed and rubbed a particularly achy part of her neck while she spoke.

“Still sore, huh?”

Star nodded.

“Sounds like a job for Jackie Lynn ‘Magic Hands’ Thomas,” Jackie said, smiling proudly and raising her hands in the air to show them off.

Star shook her head, but the pain of even doing that made her change her mind. “Okay, yeah, that’d be nice actually.”

Jackie smiled and sat herself behind Star again.

Star bundled up her long hair and pulled it over her shoulder. It was a complete mess from tossing and turning all night, and there were still little sticks and leaves tangled up in it from all her tumbles yesterday. She tried to sort out the tangles with her fingers to keep her hands busy while Jackie worked.

When Jackie sunk her fingers into Star’s stiff neck, the relief was almost instantaneous. _Magic Hands_ was right. This girl had definitely earned the title. Lucky Chloe.

Star smiled to herself, then apologized to Jackie, “Sorry to put you to work out here.”

“Oh stop. I told you, I like this stuff.”

Star gave up on her guilt and just tried to enjoy it. She knew it would only be a temporary relief, but it was something, and she’d take what she could get right now. She was tempted to break her promise and try some kind of pain relief drink when she stopped by the café today – which she should really get going on soon. But… not yet. She couldn’t pry herself away from this.

“Do you do this a lot?” Star asked. “You’re really good.”

Jackie laughed, “I wish. You’d think people would jump on the chance to let an amateur mash up their muscles, but it turns out you have to be licensed by the State of California if you want to do that.”

Star grinned, “Time to start up a back-alley massage parlor.”

“You think? Become queen of the dark underworld of illicit physical therapy?”

“You’d be rich.”

“Maybe, but I don’t want to go to masseuse jail or whatever they do to illegal massage therapists.” Jackie sighed, “It’d be nice if it was as easy as you and Chloe have it. Just make great coffee and amazing food and no one cares how you get there.”

“She’s going to school though, right?”

“She doesn’t need it. Her food’s amazing, Star, I really wish I could show you. If she opened a restaurant in Echo Creek, it would bankrupt every other business for miles around.”

“Yeah, who needs clothes and books and stuff when you can have a great lunch instead?”

Jackie gave Star a playful shove, “You know what I mean.”

Star smiled to herself. Jackie was pretty fun. This was nice. She kicked her feet idly in the water while Jackie continued working her magic. After a while – a few minutes? Star had lost track of time. The sun was visible over the tree line now – after however long it was, Jackie paused and tapped her fingers rhythmically on Star’s shoulders.

“Hey,” Jackie asked suddenly, “Do you really have wings under there?”

Star laughed, “Yeah, I really do. You really don’t? Aren’t you a little old to… not?”

“Nope. My back is apparently _smooth as butter_, according to Chloe. She tells me I’ve got cute freckles back there, though. I’ll have to take her word for it.” Jackie paused for a moment of reflection, “So you’re really from somewhere else, huh? Like, _somewhere else_.”

“Mewni. It’s another dimension.”

“Huh. You know I always figured aliens would have green skin and scales, or horns, tails, something weird like that.”

“Oh we’ve got things like that back home. Monsters. They’re kind of nasty, though. Always picking fights. There’s this one monster who’s like… hunting me down… It’s a whole thing.”

“That… sounds… terrifying.”

“It’s not so bad. Marco helped me get rid of him last time, actually. He’s pretty nice, huh?”

Jackie replied with a quiet confirmation, then changed the subject back, “And you’re like, what? Magic?”

“Yeah, we make special espresso drinks at my family’s café using a Magic Steam Wand.”

Jackie cooed with delight, “Oh my god Star Butterfly you are so unreal.” She hesitated for a moment before she cautiously made a request, “So… look, I don’t know if this is weird but I have to ask… Can I see them?”

“The drinks?”

“Your wings. I’ve never… I mean obviously, I’ve never seen a magical girl for real. We don’t have that stuff on Earth. It’s like something out of a cartoon. I’ve always… it was always a fantasy when I was a kid.” Jackie cut herself off, “Look if it’s weird it’s fine, sorry, I don’t—”

Star laughed, “It’s fine.”

“Really?”

“Yeah it’s not a big deal. You’ll see them anyways if I ever manage to get a chance to go for a swim on this camping trip _next to the water_.”

Star hiked the back of her sweater up to her neck, and gave her wings a little flutter for Jackie’s amusement.

Jackie was absolutely bewitched by the sight, “Oh my god Star they’re so…” Jackie seemed to run out of words. Then she enthusiastically blurted out, “Can you fly?”

That made Star smirk. “I wish. My mom can, though. It’s kind of rare, but there might be hope for me yet.”

“Oh man that would be so cool. Listen if you ever figure it out, you have to come find me and show me, okay?”

Star pulled her shirt back down, then she reached for the sky and stretched out her back. She figured she really ought to get going to the café, but just as she was about to get up to leave, she realized that this was the perfect chance to collect some intel – the answer to a burning question. But Star wasn’t sure how to ask. The fog in her brain sure didn’t help in putting the words together.

While she was puzzling it over, Jackie returned to her seat next to Star. She had her feet dipped in the water, slowly dragging the water back and forth with her toes. That huge smile from before was still plastered all over her face, but she wasn’t looking at the lake anymore. Maybe she was thinking about magical girls in flight or something.

Eventually Star settled on just asking. “So, hey, random question: How… do you feel about _guys_?”

Jackie laughed at Star’s bluntness, “What kind of question is that?”

“I dunno. Sorry, is that weird? I’m just making conversation.”

“Guys. Yeah, they’re fine I guess – when they’re not focused on the only two words in their vocabulary.”

Star gave Jackie a puzzled look, “What words?”

Jackie counted off on her fingers as she spoke, “Fighting, and fff—” Jackie caught and corrected herself, “—Fornicating.”

“Ah. Yes. Yeah, I totally know what you mean. My ex was kind of bad for that.” Star hadn’t really put it together before, but yeah, that was kind of the thing about Tom, wasn’t it? He was always picking fights with everyone about everything. Super jealous. Really short fuse. And honestly, by the end of their relationship, it never really seemed like he really enjoyed just… _spending time_ with Star unless… well, it was like Jackie said. Star let out a disappointed sigh. “I guess that’s something Mewni and Earth have in common, huh? It’s been nice working at the café, though – getting a chance to hang out around a guy with soft edges for once.”

“You mean Marco?”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah for sure. He’s super nice. I’ve never met another guy like him, honestly. Feels like you can really let your guard down with him – well, except for the other day at the café. What was up with that?”

Star rubbed the back of her head. She didn’t really want to admit to Jackie that the whole incident was her fault, but… it was, and it’d make Marco look better if Star cleared everything up.

“That was… sort of… my… fault. I gave him a bad magic drink and it kind of… Well, you saw it.”

“I know! It was so strange seeing him acting like that. I thought he lost his mind.”

“You get it, though, right? That wasn’t really Marco. You know he’s not like that.”

“Oh obviously! I’m just happy he turned back to normal.”

Star tapped her fingers on her knees. She still didn’t have the info she needed. Did Marco have a chance? How could she even ask that?

She stared at her own feet as she kicked little splashes of water into the air, struggling to find the right words, “But, uh, what I meant was… how do you… _feel_ about guys?”

Jackie didn’t respond immediately. Maybe Star wasn’t making sense.

She tried to clarify, “Like, I know you’re dating that girl in… France? But… I was just wondering—”

The water at Jackie’s feet stopped moving. Her smile sunk a bit as she let out a little sigh and hung her head. She replied in a defeated tone, “You really are a good friend, huh? Yeah, against all odds, I’m ‘into both’ too, Star Butterfly. So maybe it’s not so weird around here.”

Those words were familiar. The fog cleared for a moment and Star’s eyes grew wide with recognition. “You were listening.”

“Yeah. Sorry. I wasn’t spying on you guys or anything, I was just trying to go for a morning swim and you two were talking there - about me. I didn’t want to interrupt, but I wanted to know what you were saying. _Probably_ should have just turned around.”

“Why didn’t you say anything—”

“I don’t know, what do you do after hearing something like that?” Jackie picked up a stone and stared at it intently, turning it over in her fingers. “If he’s not going to say anything to me about it, I can’t force him. So I’m just trying to be cool about it, just get through the trip and have a good time with everyone without making a big deal about it.” Jackie paused for a moment before she asked, “Are you gonna tell him?”

“No! No, I wouldn’t – not if you don’t want me to. But… I mean… would you? Say yes? If he said something?”

Jackie clutched the tiny stone in her fist, “I don’t know. Maybe.” She tossed it into the lake sideways. It skipped a few times before dropping anticlimactically into the water. “Look, I love Marco. He’s super fun to hang out with, and cute, and funny. And… just… _safe_.” Jackie picked up another stone and gave it the same close inspection as the previous one before she sent it flying to the same fate at the bottom of the lake. “I guess I just don’t want to hurt him if things don’t work.” She turned to face Star, “You know what it is? It’s like… he just seems like a _forever_ kind of guy. Right? Don’t you think so?”

Star hadn’t really thought about it. What did a forever guy look like? Marco was definitely caring and nurturing and protective, but that didn’t mean he wanted to get married to the first person he hooked up with. But… maybe? He’d been crushing on Jackie exclusively for a _long_ time.

Jackie didn’t wait for Star’s answer before she continued, “I don’t know if I’m ready for _forever_ stuff. I don’t think I am. I don’t feel like I am.”

“But… what about your girlfriend? That sounds pretty serious.”

“That’s… she’s…” Jackie paused to gather her thoughts, and while she was thinking, the uneasy, defensive look on her face warmed into a soft smile. “I don’t know, Star, it’s just different. Haven’t you ever met someone who just changes _everything_? The color of the night sky in the summer, the taste of a cappuccino on a sunny afternoon – even the smell of the ocean is sweeter. All this stuff in my world is _different_ now. Like, _more_, it’s just more now. Everything is more, because of her, so I can’t really help it. She’s always going to be part of me. And I definitely wasn’t ready for it. But like, ready or not, she kind of forced this _forever_ thing on me with all her… _her_.”

Star felt enchanted listening to Jackie gush about her feelings for Chloe. That really was it, wasn’t it? The person who changes your world. The person who makes everything _more_. That’s what it’s about. She tried to think if she’d ever had that before. Definitely not with Tom. The only world-changing thing he’d ever done for her was yell at her a bunch and make her feel bad for no good reason – and that hadn’t exactly added any magic to her world.

Oh boy, she really did not want to have to deal with the drama of trying to get him to help her out with this ghost thing.

“So,” Star went on with her inquiry, “What about Marco? You don’t think he can do that?”

“I don’t know.” Jackie turned to face Star, “Do you? He’s not exactly… exciting. What would we even do? just sit around a coffee shop?” Jackie scoffed with a smile, “I bet he’d just take me to Buck’s for a first date, _just to be safe_.”

“Well, I don’t know about that—” Star looked out on the lake again, remembering that look on Marco’s face when he was lost in the silence on the water. “—Does he have to be exciting? Maybe he’s just good in some other way. You’ll never know unless you give him a chance, right?”

Jackie smirked and joked, “What, are you his hype man now?”

Star waved her hands in the air and tried to deny it, “No! Sorry, I’m not trying to—” Star realized this might actually look really bad for Marco. “Look, he didn’t put me up to this or anything, I swear—”

“Don’t worry, dude,” Jackie said with a laugh, “I get it. You’re a good friend, Star Butterfly.” Then she stood up and stretched, “I’m heading back in the water. You gonna join me?”

Star shook her head no and got back up on her feet. “I have to take care of something before everyone wakes up.”

Jackie winked, “Say no more. You should make some time for the water before the trip is over, though. It’s really nice out here.”

Star nodded in agreement, said goodbye, and then headed back to the campsite.

It really was getting late in the morning, make today’s coffee copy of herself, or things would be a mess. She grabbed her magic stuff from her tent in a rush, then headed off into the woods a safe distance to open the portal back to the café.

When she stepped out into the breakroom, the building was dark and the café was silent – but the smell of coffee in the air was strangely powerful. Normally the café smelled pretty sterile and bleachy when she came in in the mornings. Maybe her copy didn’t close up properly?

She turned on the house lights and hurried to the front to put together the cloning drink.

Before she could start, though, she found a note from hers second self on the front counter.

_Hey me,_

_So I guess there’s a music festival going on? We got super busy, so I kept the café open late. It was pretty fun, but I got really burned out by the end of the night. Could you make an extra Star copy today? The festival’s going on for the rest of the week and I don’t think one of me is enough to handle all this. We can just tell the customers we’re twins. They’ll love it._

_Thanks! See you soon, boss._

_Star 2 _♥

To Star’s sleep-deprived, fog-addled brain, this seemed like a perfectly reasonable request, so she went ahead and made two cups of the bitter magical doppio, then downed them both with a shudder. When she was finished, the empty cups imploded into two blobs of white light, then grew into a pair of exact duplicates of Star – tired face, messy hair, and baggy sweater included.

“Hoo boy,” Star touched the dark circles under her eyes, “I really do look rough. You two okay to sort yourselves out?”

Star 3 and 4 looked each other over like they were examining their reflections in a mirror, then turned to Star and nodded, “No problem, boss! Nothing a few shots won’t fix!”

Star gave the two of them a tired thumbs up. “You know the drill. Call me if something explodes.” She turned to leave, then did an about-face, “And please don’t explode anything.”

They both gave Star an energetic salute, then replied, slightly out of sync, “The café’s in good hands!” Then they pointed at each other and called out, “Jinx! Double jinx! Triple jinx!”

Star shook her head and walked away, mumbling to herself, “Better than no hands, I guess. Oh boy, I hope the world’s ready for two Star Butterflys.”

After she returned to the sleepy, dawn-lit campsite, she managed to drag herself to her sleeping bag, hoping against hope to find a moment of rest. And – maybe it was Jackie’s tender care, or maybe it was having literally zero energy left after splitting what little she had into a couple of copies – but finally, the static in her mind and the pain in her body were all subdued by the kind of darkness that puts princesses to sleep for a hundred years. And honestly, Star figured she’d have no complaints if it did.

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by an impassioned open letter of a writing prompt from [melissanelissa](https://melissanelissa.tumblr.com/post/161551703935/).
> 
> I never thought I'd attempt one of these quirky AU things. But here we are. It's a nice break from the heaviness of [the other thing I'm writing](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18971902/).
> 
> There will probably be more to this, but without a regular update schedule.
> 
> I did not/will not edit this as thoroughly as my usual work. My apologies. Thanks as always for reading.
> 
> Also, thanks to [xSugaritos](https://archiveofourown.org/users/xSugaritos/profile), [thDorkMagnet](https://www.fanfiction.net/u/6432760/thDorkMagnet), and [phantomnation](https://phantomnationdraws.tumblr.com/) for helping me out with some beta reading. Nice to have such talented eyes on this stuff before it goes live, and the feedback is really appreciated.
> 
> \- [AR](https://aphantaray.tumblr.com)


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